Stargate: Farthest Stars
by BigRedCanuck
Summary: When Daniel Jackson and a team of archeologists uncover a new revelation about the Atlantian's past, before they fled Earth the first time, the Stargate Universe as we know it expands sevenfold. Please Read
1. Chapter 1

"Doctor Jackson! Doctor Jackson!"

Cringing inwardly, Daniel quickly glanced about, trying to find a nice doorway or something to sidestep though and possibly avoid the young man who was insistent on pestering him every waking minute of his stay here at the Antarctic Research Base. It wasn't that Daniel didn't like Roger Cairn, per se, in fact he liked the young Scottish assistant researcher very much. But every time the smallest thing came up Roger would hunt him down and pelt the Archeologist with dozens of questions.

Daniel could hear the young man's footsteps getting closer, his calls becoming more insistant. In a second of self induced panic, the archeologist quickly stepped into a recess in the icy walls and through a door..

Oops, no door.

With a resounding smack o his head bouncing off a outcropping of ice, Daniel fall backwards onto his rear and groaned, clutching his head as his papers went scattering across the floor.

Roger Cairns rounded a corner just at that moment to see Daniel moaning and holding his poor bruised head. The young Scotsman rushed to his superiors air.. slipping on papers and cart wheeling into a heap next to him.

Daniel was too busy cursing the military engineers who hadn't gotten around to smoothening the walls of this corridor so they didn't cast tricky shadows that made him think there were doors through with he could escape from pver eager assistants to notice Cairns was there. At least for a moment. Finally, the young man's own moaning brought him to his senses and he looks at the fallen researcher."

"Roger, what are you doing on the floor?"

"Whut are /ye/ doin on tha floor?" Cairns asked back in a groan as he pushed himself up.

Daniel decided not to answer that because he wasn't the best liar and everyone knew it. So he just ignored the remark and started to gather his papers. "You were calling for me?" he asked as he scooped up a pile of Ancient Translations he had been studying earlier.

Cairns rolled onto his knees and started to help.. then quickly realized he had be asked a question. His excitement rushed back like air filling a vacuum. "Oh, Oh, Oh!" he exclaimed, dropping the few papers he had picked up as he stood and grabbed Daniel by the arm. "Ye gotta come with me, Doctor Jackson!" he said excitedly, almost bouncing where he stood. "Doctor Arliss found something! He found something you need to see."

Daniel would have tried asking what Malcolm Arliss, the Brazilian Archeologist, had found if Cairns had given him half a chance. But the way the young man tugged at him, like some puppy with a new chew toy, made it hard. Resigned, Daniel scooped upwhat he could and was half led, half dragged, down the corridor.

Five minutes later, Daniel and Cairns stood inside a chamber Daniel had never seen before. Like the rest of the Ancient's Antarctic base which stood as a marker for where Atlantis once sat before they flew it away to the Pegasus galaxy, the room was rather large, almost domelike, and was a mixture of strange metallic wall paneling inset into the eternal ice.

But where this room differed from the rest was that in it's center was a globe.. A globe hewn from a solid piece of something like Sapphire and being 6 feet across.. The sapphire glowed faintly, almost with a light of it's own, pulsing.

Beside the globe was Malcolm Arliss. A whipthin man with skin the colour of the darkest coffee wearing glasses, Arliss stood only a few feet away from this new find. As Daniel and Cairns entered, he quickly looked over to them and waved them over, looking almost as excited as the Scotsman. This alone made Daniel wonder what they had really found, aside from a nice shiny smooth ball of very expensive gemstone.

"Daniel!" Arliss beckoned. "The Dig Tea, uncovered this about 10 minutes ago. You have to see this! It's the most incredible thing."

Now Daniel wasn't just curious, he was dubious. Having traveled over the galaxy more times then he could count, traveling OUTSIDE the galaxy, traveling through time, dying, ascending, dying, ascending, descending… Well it was HARD to find many things incredible anymore.

But Arliss, with Cairns helping, made it clear that they had found something of import. So with a sigh, Daniel stepped up beside the dark skinned man and looked at the Globe.

"You know, Arliss, you just FOUND this thing. Shouldn't we get someone like Colonel Carter or one of the other scientists in here? You know, just so we don't end up discombobulated or something?" Daniel cautioned.

Arliss rolled his eyes. "Daniel. You're a linguist! There is no such word as Discombobulated."

"That's not what Jack says. He even used it as a word in Scrabble"

"Daniel, we've been collegues for years and I say this with only the greatest respect. General O'neill is corrupting you."

"Ya think?"

Cairns snickered as Daniel was, for one moment, the carbon but much younger copy of Jack O'Niell. Both the Doctors gave him a look that quickly shut him up, though. He just stepped back and let his bosses do what bosses did.

"Okay, Okay. Look, Arliss. Since we're not dead yet, and believe me I'd know, you can tell me what you've found. So far all I see is a sapphire. A LARGE sapphire, mind you, but still a sapphire.. That, um, seems to glow a bit."

Arliss grinned and stepped closer to the Globe. He reached out to touch it and Daniel leapt foreword, grabbing the Brazilian's hand.

"Damnit, Malcolm, don't DO that. Touching and Glowing Crystals do NOT go together well. Trust me on this."

Arliss tugged his hand away. "Relax Daniel. I've already done this. It doesn't bite. But it DOES do something."

Before Daniel could stop him a second time, the black hand pressed was pressed flatly against the smooth blue surface. At that exact moment the light within grew and flashed, bathing the entire room in a wash of blue white lights.

It took a moment for Daniel to drop his hands from his eyes and let his sight readjust, but when he did he was amazed at what he saw. The Sapphire Globe rippled from within, like the event horizon of the Stargate almost. Blue and silvery waves just below the crystalline surface. Amidst these ripples images appeared. Greens and whites and browns, blurs, that slowly resolved into.. continents.

It took only a few seconds until the entire thing resolved into perfect clarity. It was a globe in the truest sense. A globe of Earth. But with some glaring differences.

All the continents were there, but there we subtle changes to them. North America and Asia were connected. There were at least three small continent sized islands in places Daniel knew there shouldn't be any. Parts of North America, South America, and Europe were flooded with inland seas.. But other then that it was easily recognizable as Earth.

Daniel inhaled sharply and reached out, absently, to stroke the surface of the globe. It was still cool and sooth to the touch, a testament that every he saw was within it.

"Amazin, huh?" Cairns asked. "It's a map."

Arliss fixed his 'look' at Cairns. "We KNOW that Roger. Being Archeologists we tend to realize when something is a map." Cairns winced sheepishly, until Jackson shushed them up with a wave of his hand.

"You realize what this is, don't you?"

Arliss sighed. "A map?" he said. "I think we already went over this."

Daniel growled. "No. Well, yes, it is a map.. But do you realize what it's a map of?"

"Earth?" Roger asked, helpfully. That gained him another 'Look' from Arliss.

Daniel walked around the globe. "Yes, a Map of Earth. Of how Earth was when the Ancients were the dominant race. Before they first left for Pegasus and came back."

Arliss and Cairns looked at Daniel strangely. "You're sure?" Arliss asked, dubious.

Daniel nodded. "I'm sure of it. Hey, you see this?" he asked, crouching down to point to a red circle on the Antarctic coast. He touched it and suddenly a red wire frame hologram lanced out from the surface.. A snowflake design slowly orbiting the planet, as if zoomed in on. Daniel

Gasped and quickly stood up to examine it. "This. This is a schematic of the City of Atlantis. It matches the map Rodney McKay sent us in his download."

Now both Cairns and Arliss were intrigued. They walked over, examing the floating hologram. As Daniel and Arliss began discussing what this all meant Cairns cleared his throat.

Daniel and Arliss turned. "What?" Arliss demanded.

Cairns pointed to the globe. "Uhm, if that's Atlantis then what are those other red circles?

Both blinking, Daniel and Arliss ran over and looked at where Cairns was pointing. Sure enough there was a circle. And another.. and another.. All at different points around the globe. Some on known landmasses.. some on the unknown ones. All together, including Atlantis, there were seven.

One by one, Daniel and Arliss and Cairns touched each circle, and one by one each of them projected a holographic design in the air above them. Each design was geometric, but a few of them were not Snowflake shaped like Atlantis.

But there were cities. Each a different general shape but all symmetrical and all crisscrossed with lines and protrusions like Atlantis was, designating streets and avenues and towers… Daniel touched each map again and a beam of red light passed through them from the globe and outwards to the domed roof of the room. The laser light scattered against reflective surfaces, turning the ceiling into a holographic star map. And Each city had a line that rose to the stars.

"My god." Daniel whispered. "Do you realize what this means."

Malcolm Arliss and Roger Cairns were too dumfounded to say it. They were as shocked as Daniel. Only Daniel could find the words to say it out loud.

"Atlantis wasn't the Only city… it was one of Seven. They all left Earth!"

It was Cairns who finally spoke, his voice shaky. "But where, Doctor Jackson?"

Daniel looked up into the holographic universe. "Out there. Somewhere. And if I'm not mistaken, every one of them went to another galaxy, Like Atlantis went to Pegasus."


	2. Chapter 2

_ **Authors Note:** Thanks for the good reviews, guys. I really appreciate it. Yeah, I know some things were confusing. I will try to clear them up as I go along here. _

Chapter 2

Brigadier General Jonathan "Jack" O'Neill looked over his desk at the three members of his old team, who also formed the upper echelon of the SGC just below him and his best advisors as well.

"So." He said, slowly, leaning back in his chair, the spring creaking slightly as he kicked his boots up on his desk and interlaces his fingers behind his head. "Let me get this straight, Daniel. Atlantis was only one city of how many?"

Daniel Jackson fidgeted in his seat a bit, looking at his friend as he, and Samantha Carter and Teal'c, looked back at him. "Uhm, Seven." He said slowly. "Seven cities."

"And why, pray tell, did we not know about this before, Daniel?"

Carter turned in her seat to scrutinize Daniel a bit more. "Yeah Daniel." She said. "I mean, we've been studying the ancients, or what little we could, for years now. Nothing we found, even among the data that Rodney McKay sent us in his download from Atlantis itself, ever hinted at any more then one true city. Why are we just finding it out now?"

"Indeed, Daniel Jackson, why?" Teal'c added, just so he could say he was participating.

Daniel sighed and unfolded his laptop, placing it on Jack's desk. He turned it sideways so everyone could see the screen and started tapping at the keyboard.

"Actually, it was always there. Well sort of." He admitted, a bit embarrassed. "The problem is, there are so many mythical cities on erth that after a while, we began to believe that each one was just a different name for Atlantis, passed down generation through generation, culture through culture, over millennia. Some we dismissed as just fanciful story, others we just ignored completely. But now We have the proof that some of them actually existed, far earlier then any of their legends tell us, in the same time span as Atlantis itself."

Jack still looked a bit skeptical. "Okaaaaaay. But I thought Atlantis and the Atlantians were just one single civilization back then."

Before Jack could say anything else, Carter straightened up a bit. "Well no, not really sir." She told her old CO. "I mean, there is a rule in science and technology that to keep and develop a certain technical base, you need a population large enough to develop it. The single city of Atlantis, even filled full with people, wouldn't have been able to support their vast knowledge base by itself."

"Ah, yes, but they did have colonies. Those count don't they?" Jack asked.

Daniel stepped in now. "Well yes and no, Jack. I mean, They had to have enough people to send to those colonies, right? Do you think a single city on their homeworld, being Earth at the time, that was no larger then Manhattan could support such a galactic power?"

Now this was something both Jack and Teal'c understood. Supporting a power or nation or planet took resources, something that military minds could understand. "Okay, I get it now. So their civilization wasn't just some small speck of people living in a flying city over Antarctica."

Daniel smiled, happy that Jack saw the logic in the argument. "No it wasn't. And from what I found out, working with Doctor Arliss and his assistant Roger Cairns the past two weeks is that the Atlantian Civilization wasn't as homogenous as we thought. In fact, it wasn't the Atlantian civilization at all. We have to a point been mistakenly using the terms Atlantian and Ancients back and forth when that isn't quite right. The Atlantians were just one /part/ of the Ancient's world, or one faction if you will. Atlantis was the capital." He tapped the keyboard some more and the map from the Sapphire Globe of the Atlantian Ancients appeared, though now in a format compatible with their understanding and translated.

"As you can see," The archeologist said, pointing the map of Earth that wasn't quite the Earth they knew presently, "These red dots around the world represent the Seven cities of the Ancients. The Major centers of Power on Earth at the time. Around them these yellow dots, which we activated a few days after the initial discovery, are small cities and towns and centers of industry." There were dozens upon dozens of these and while they weren't as heavily packed as close as Today's cities, they did cover the entire globe.

"The Seven cities were the building block of the entire empire of the Ancients. Each one had its own slightly differing culture, though they agreed on many points, and unique importance's to the Ancients empire."

Daniel pressed a key and slowly yellow dots began to turn black and fade away. "When the plague that would finally force the Atlantians to Pegasus came, all the smaller cities and colonies in space either slowly died out or were recalled to the major population centers. When the plague threatened to finally wipe out these last bastions of Ancients Civilization they realized that they had too many eggs in one basket. So they devised the plan to send each of the remaining colonies to different galaxies, to ensure that at least one of them would survive and keep the Ancients civilization alive in some form. The ones who remained behind from each of the cities and somehow survived the plague interbred between each other and from the Seven base cities and peoples of the Ancients every other Race on earth was born."

Sam whistled lowly at this. "That's incredible, Daniel. And it fits with what I said about the technical base as well. With so few people surviving the plague, the survivors didn't have enough of a population to support the high level of technology and over generations it was lost. Even when the Atlantian Ancients returned to Earth their population was so wiped out from this enemy that the Atlantis Expedition told us of, the Wraith, that they couldn't jumpstart the survivors civilization so they decided to ascend in stead. That's why when the Goa'uld stumbled across Earth, our ancestors were basically savages."

Jack held up his hands as if in surrender. "Okay! Alright! I get the idea." he exclaimed, then slumped a bit in his chair, sighing. "So. We what have we learned today, boys and girls? That There are, or at least were, Seven cities out there somewhere in the big ol mean universe? But do we know where exactly? Or even if they are still around? I mean, come one Daniel. We took a big enough risk on Atlantis and we KNEW they had returned to earth at some point. Nothing indicates that any of these other cities made it to where they were going or even tried to send someone back by ship or Stargate."

The three warriors, well two warriors and one warrior-scientist, looked at Daniel expectantly. The Archeologist could just shrug as he brought up another screen. "No, we don't know what their status is but we do know where they went. The Sapphire globe projected red lines, travel routes, from each city to a star map on the ceiling. I've had Sam's people go over it and They've been able to plot all the galaxies the Seven Cities went to, though we already knew which one Atlantis went to, and the nine chevron coordinates for each. And from some ancients writing I found in another chamber off the globe room I was able to translate the names of Each city and a little information about each."

Jack raised a brow at this. "What were they called?" he asked, actually curious about it.

Sitting back from his screen, Daniel took a moment to get the names straight in his head. He knew each one from various legends, but using them in a real world context was still something strange to him. "The Seven cities were Atlantis, Lemuria, Dorada, Avalon, Xanadu, Mu and Ys."

Both Sam and Jack's brows perked at some of the names. Even Teal'c seemed to recognize a few of them from what he had learned in his years among the Tauri.

"Sooooooo." Jack said, reaching into his desk and pulling out a yo-yo. A yellow one, his favorite actually. He hooked a finger into the small loop and started yo-yoing. "We know there are Seven Cities out there. We know There names and locations. We don't know their status and we have no way of even getting to them because our Only working ZPM is currently at one of the, Atlantis, along with the ship that transported it there to help defend against their little siege. And with as many people as we got stranded on Atlantis I doubt I could get the president or General Hammond at Homeworld security to put together another expedition, let alone seven. So what the hell do we do."

Daniel smiled. "Well, while you may not get an expedition force like Atlantis's, I bet you could get a small one at least."

"Daniel, we still don't have a ZPM." Carter interjected.

Daniel's smile became mischevious. "Well, that isn't quite true." He said, impishly. Jack eyes his young friend suspiciously.

"Daniel?" he asked slowly. "What are you hiding."

Daniel couldn't help it. He looked at his friend and laughed. "You know how you guys kept complaining about how we found the last ZPM right under our noses?" he asked.

"I did not complain about a ZPM being under my nose, Daniel Jackson." Teal'c said, though with a smirk instead of his old more dour straight face.

"Well yeah, true Teal'c. Anyways, I just so happen to have the locations of three ZPM's which I found among the writings."

Everyone looked at Daniel as if he had grown another head. He just pointed to a new map that had shown up on his laptop. It took at least a moment for the locations to register. It was, surprisingly, Jack who figured it out.

"They're on Mars!" he cried.

The others blinked. Daniel sat back in his chair and like Jack at the beginning of the meeting interlaced his fingers behind his head and kicked up his feet onto Jacks desk as he grinned. "Yep. Their on Mars. Under the Great Face."

Teal'c raised a brow in that way only aliens seem to be able to. "You mean the face that is on the covers of many of your worlds supermarket news tabloids?"

Daniel nodded.

"Yep. One and the same. Right under it's nose. Literally."


	3. Chapter 3

_ **Author's Note:** Thanks again you guys for the good reviews. Yeah, I do need to get a beta or two, Evilclone, and watch the spelling and grammar. You offering? __ Oh, a correction from Chapter Two. Lyonesse is **NOT** one of the Cities. That was from an old list I made. It was supposed to be Xanadu. I have gone back and fixed this mistake. Now On with the show _

_**Additional** **Author's Note:** Sorry this chapter is so short and that it took so long. Had a small Category 1 Hurricane come through and I've been busy. Will try to have something more meaningful next time around. _

**Chapter 3**

Jack stared down at the rust red world far below him, feeling somehow as if he had finally accomplished something, a dream of sorts, by coming to Mars.

He sighed, contentedly, and pressed his face to the viewport as he tried to get a better look. Swirls of white clouds. The grey-white ice caps. The great canyons which his ancestors believed to be the canals of some great ancient civilization.

Maybe there was, Jack thought.

The door behind was pushed open much like a submarine bulkhead. General Hammond slipped into the small observation room, dressed in the standard blue jumpsuit-like uniform worn by all crew members on ship. The general regarded his old officer then walked over and stood beside O'Niell, looking down at Mars below.

"I must say, Jack, I never expected you to seem so interested in something that is practically in our backyard." Hammond mused in that slog Texas drawl of his that had become even more pronounced since he had begun spending more and more time aboard the Prometheus. "Not when you consider all the years you and SG-1 spent traipsing around the galaxy. I would think something as, well, as mundane as Mars would seem like old school to you."

Jack's lips quirked faintly upwards at one corner, yet his eyes never left the red and mottled surface so many thousands of miles below. "No sir," he replied softly, "Not mundane. Anything but mundane. I've been to over a hundred worlds. I've seen the strangest and most frightening things a human could hope, or not hope, to see in a hundred lifetimes. But none of them are as mysterious or enthralling to me as Mars."

Hammond's eyes went a bid wider in surprise. "I'm not sure I follow you, son." He said slowly, mulling over what the younger general had just said.

Jack leaned a bit heavier against the viewport. "All these cultures and species we've seen. So many of them have these mysterious.. things.. in their pasts. Myths of gods, people, aliens and even entire planets and civilizations. Even we're part of their myths; The Tauri, The people and homeworld for Humanity and ancestors of the Ancients. But what about our myths? Sure, many of them have just been aliens pretending to be gods but there are a few out there. A few myth and mysteries that are Earth's alone. And Mars is perhaps the greatest one of all."

The Older general hmmm'd and steps closer to the viewport. "I see. I guess I can sort of understand. When I was a boy there were many great serials and pulps about Mars, like those by Edgar Rice Burroughs.."

Jack couldn't help but smile at that. "John Carter of Mars." He finished for Hammond. "Yeah, I remember reading those. God, I so wanted to go to mars one day. It's why I got so heavily into astronomy as a hobby."

Now it was the generals turn to laugh. "Oh, more then a hobby, Jack, that I know for certain." He paused for a moment then grinned broadly. "So when are you going to tell Doctor Jackson and Colonel Carter that you have a masters degree in General Astronomy?"

Wincing, Jack quickly looked around to make sure neither of the afore mentioned scientists were around. "Shhh, you'll blow my cover."

"And what cover is that?"

"That I'm smarter then they think?"

The pair of generals shared a long laugh at that, chortling and holding their sides. Finally after the amusement died out, they returned their gaze to the planet below.

"You know, General, I think the reason Mars mesmerizes me so much now is that for ten years of traveling through the Stargate, or flying around in various ships, we have never come here yet. We've never even done a close fly by in the Prometheus. Why not?"

"The President and Chiefs of Staff didn't think it was important, Jack. What is one dead world compared to thousand, or millions, of live ones."

Jack sighed. "Perhaps," he groused mildly. "But I plan to change that if possible. It's probably time to get a few more Nasa officials involved with the SGC."

"I agree, Jack. I'll see to it after we find what we're looking for and return to Earth."

And with that the two high ranking officials, and close friends, stared down at the mysterious red planet, wondering what the Ancients had left there. And why.

Additional Authors Note


	4. Chapter 4

_**Author's Note** Again, thank you all for the great reviews. You're making this story a lot more fun to write then my others. Maybe I'll even try to get a beta sometime soon ;) You guys have been very very supportive. If you have some ideas of stuff to throw in, just let me know. Not 'ship stuff, though. Not yet anyways_

_

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**Chapter 4**

Jack and SG-1 stood in Prometheus's transporter bay, various technicians finishing the final connections on their spacesuits. Unlike the bulky NASA designs of old, and even present day, these new suits were designed with innovations gathered from the Tok'Ra and Carter's joint intellect. Hard-shell torsos and leg and arms with all the joints made of a rubbery like material. They were Easy to walk in and very light and would become Standard issue on the X-303 class of starship.

Sgt Walter Harriman stood at the Asguardian Transporter Control panel, sliding a few gems around the surface and into their proper configurations. To his left General Hammond watched as Siler and his people clicked the teams helmets on and pressurized their suits with the small re-breather backpacks. The techs then grabbed their things and they stepped outside of the painted area designated as the transport platform.

Jack felt at the locks on his suit then grinned through the slightly faceted helmet's faceplate at Walter and Hammond. "I'm green and good to go." He said, his voice slightly muffled through the communications speakers.

Carter, Teal'c, and Daniel all sounded off. The team had specialized tools clipped to their belts and Zzat's on their hips since gunpowder weapons probably woudn't work in the low pressure and extremely oxygen poor atmosphere. Hammond nodded at his people and clasped his hands behind his back.

"Good Luck!" he said, proud of his old officers, "Sergeant, if you would. General and SG-1 have a go."

Walter nodded. "Aye, General." He replied as he moved the gems into a new configuration. There was a flash of pure white light that engulfed the room and when it faded the team was gone.

White faded, giving away to Red.

And Blue.

This startled Jack slightly as he had thought that Mars would have a _red_ sky. Hadn't those old pictures in National Geographic depicted it as red.? Damnit, he'd have to get his money back on that.

"Carter?" he asked as the others slowly looked around. "Why's the sky blue?"

Everyone was silent a moment. Then Both Carter and Daniel started laughing. Even Teal'c seemed amused, if the raisin of his eyebrow behind his mask was any indicator.

O'Neill grumped at this and shot his old team an annoyed look. "For cryin out loud?" he fumed. "WHAT?"

Carter laughed as she pulled an almost Star Trekkish tricorder-like device off her belt. "Sorry, Sir. It's just that.. I would have thought you would have said something more, well, grandeur and inspirational and not something that sounded like it was asked by a 3 year old to it's parents. I mean you _are_ the first person, well _modern_ person, to step foot on Mars."

O'Neill blinked.. then his face scrunched up behind the faceplate.

"D'OH!"

This started a second round of laughs, even from Teal'c this time. Jack could just sigh and grumble, wondering if anyone on the Prometheus had heard any of this.

_Probably_, he thought, _And there goes my big chance to say something smart that would go down in the history books, too. Of course, like my biography, I would have to kill anyone that read those books._

Sighing in resignation, O'Niell stepped up beside Teal'c and watched as Carter and Daniel walked towards an almost sheer cliff only a few dozen meter away. Using Co-ordinates gathered from the Sapphire Chamber beneath the Antarctic Ancient's Outpost, and Martian maps collected from the NASA database, Daniel and Carter had located what they hoped was the closest point to an opening in the side of the ' Face of Mars'.

The Face of Mars, that enigmatic mound of rock that had stumped scientists and invigorated alien-loving conspiracy theorists for over twenty years. For the most part, all the hype and tabloid hubbub had faded as Scientists were pretty sure the entire thing was just a naturally occurring optical illusion caused by the way light and shadows were cast.

But now humanity, or at least that small part of it that NEW that there were things beyond the confines of mother earth, knew otherwise. The Face of Mars was real.

As the two scientists scanned the cliff face, Jack started to get an uneasy feeling and started glancing around at the barren landscape. Well not barren, per se, it was strewn with boulders all over the place. Maybe desolate was a better word. Whatever the case, he just kept fidgeting where he stood, almost nervous.

"Is there a problem, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked as he saw his friend moving restlessly.

"I dunno." He replied slowly, squinting at the shadows cast by big rocks. "I feel as if something is watching us."

Teal'c raised his brow which, like his head now, was nicely groomed with dark hair. "I do not sense such a thing, O'Neill." He answered, "Maybe the silence of this dead world is unsettling to you."

That could have been the problem. Except for the faint howl of an ever present gale across his helmet, there was no other sound except what they made. He had never ben on a world tis quiet before. But still, the feeling nagged at him. "I dunno, T. Maybe one of those Yeller things are watching us."

"Yeller?"

"Yeah, you know.. Those tiny robotic malp thingies that NASA sent here."

"I believe you are referring to the Martian Rover's, O'Niell."

"Teal'c, have you been watching the Discovery Channel again?"

"Yes, I find the Discovery Channel very enlightening. It has taught me a many great things about your world. I especially enjoy the Documentaries about your oceans narrated by the venerable Magnum P.I."

"Oi. Teal'c buddy? We need to talk about your choices in entertainment…"

Jack stopped as he saw Daniel and Carter waving at them. Realizing that he and Teal'c were on a private channel he fumbled with the communications selector until he found the team frequency."

"….found it!" Daniel was shouting. "We found it!"

Carter sounded even more excited. "It's right here, Sir. There is an airlock we found under the sediment. The hatch seems stuck with all this fine red dust but with Teal'c's help we should be able to get it open."

Immediately, The general and the Jaffa bounded towards the Doctor's. Mars' gravity, while greater then the moons, was still low enough that they covered the distance in only a few leaps.

Set into the side of the mountain, because that's what the face looked like from this perspective, was a door. An honest to goodness door. Made of grayish white metal, any red tinge was sloughed off as one wiped the Martian dust from it's surface.

Right away Teal'c attempted to assist Carter with opening this door. With there being no visible access ports or buttons or anything, they had to try and resort to brute force. Unfortunately the big Jaffa, still stronger then most humans without his symbiote, couldn't make it budge.

Carter and Daniel looked heartbroken. "Maybe we could get some explosives?" The archeologist asked. The remaining trio looked at the younger man with a horrified expression that he, a scientist who tried to _preserve_ the past, would suggest such a thing.

Daniel blushed and shuffled his boots in the fine red sand. "Well, it was only an idea…" he murmured.

Finally Jack threw up his hands. "I don't believe this. We flew _billions_ of miles to another planet and we can't make the _discovery_ of the _decade_ because we we're _unable_ to open _one lousy cotton-fricken door?"_

No one knew what to say. And even if they did they had no time to say it because as Jack sighed and slumped against the door in resignation the grey-white panels slid apart and the General tumbled into what appeared to be a wall of pure oily darkness.

The team gasped collectively, well, except or Teal'c who ran for the doorway and leaned into the shadow beyond the portal, but not past the darkness itself. "O'NIELL!" he shouted, almost losing that stoic Jaffa veneer of his.

Silence.

Teal'c called his name again.. and again. The Darkness was so thick beyond the door it was almost palatable. Not ordinary Darkness at all.

"Oh god." Daniel moaned as he searched for the switch that would turn on his helmet's lamps. "I missed something in the translations. Some booby trap. Oh god, I killed Jack."

But before anyone could agree or deny with the archeologist Jack's popped out of the wall of darkness. And only his head. It didn't appear to be attached to anything, yet if floated there at almost regular height. Carter jerked back and even Teal'c seemed surprised. Daniel _looked horrified_!

But instead of falling to the ground, Jack's helmeted head just hung there against the black. And his lips moved. "For cryin out loud.. Can you hear me /now?" he asked.

The three others nodded.

"Goooood?" Jack said, and an arm poked out of the darkness. And then a leg. It was like the blackness was liquid and standing upright, a sensation they should have been familiar with since the Stargate did the same thing. If one looked at the dark they could ALMOST see even darker patches of rippling.

Once he was clear of the blackness, as he would call it later, Jack grinned. "That was cool." He said enthusiastically. "That black ripply-stuff is like some secondary shield or inner door. I could hear your transmissions but I take it you couldn't here mine." He told them. "But what' I saw inside is cooler."

Daniel and Carter perked up once more, looking very excited. "What did you see?" Carter asked as Jacked motioned for them to follow them.

"You'll just have to see it." He said, as if he was having fun hiding his discovery from them.

Jack passed through the blackness again, disappearing. Then Carter did the same. Teal'c was next, disspearing in an instant. Now, all alone, Jackson looked around the area one last time then stepped through the dark.

And came out in into The Light!

The Archeologist gasped and had to take a moment for his eyes to readjust. Instead of some long dark tunnel that lead from the door into the depths of the face he instead found himself in a huge chamber right away. Domed and with a ceiling of faceted white-blue crystals that seemd to arch for hundred of feat above him, the room had an almost Cathedral like quality to it.

"This is amazing." Daniel murmured.

"Oh yeah?" Jack asked as he appearred beside his friend. He placed a hand on Daniel's shoulder and repositioned him so he was looking at the center of the chamber. "Get a load of _that_."

"Oh my god, is that what I think it is?" Daniel asked.

In the very center of the room stood a statue. An immense statue. Given the height of the dome it could be almost as tall as the Statue of liberty. Hewn from a white-grey crystalline-like stone, it rose hundreds of feet tall.

The statue was of a humanoid, regal and taller (respectively) then a human would be if they were on the same scale, It's eyes were large and limbs were long. It wore nothing and showed no gender yet it somehow came across as feminine.

It was an Asguard. Or at least an Asguard as they had been tens of thousands of years ago.

"Yeah!" Jack finally said, and with a with a cheeky grin to boot. "Ain't it cool? Thor's gonna _love_ this."


	5. Chapter 5

_**Authors Note: **You guys have been too good to me so far. Thank you for the support/friendly criticism/advice. I was tired when I wrote this chapter but I just had to get it out of my head so I apologize if it' a) confusing b) seems like I'm going off on too many tangents. Trust me, this has a purpose _J

**Chapter 5**

The monolithic and antediluvian Asguardian statue silently stood in the center of the great chamber, it's lifeless eyes cast downwards at the tiny humans that now stood in it's presence. The differences that separated the species which this statue represented, compared to what that species was now, made the silent guardian somehow less fragile then any Asguard the humans had met. Even the Asguard ancestor Carter had been studying with Freya a few years ago didn't compare to the majesty this ancient forbearer of the now super intelligent yet diminutive race exuded.

The Team stuck close together as they walked towards the base of the over one hundred foot tall statue. Jack took point, his Zzat in his hand yet not extended, while Teal'c brought up the rear with his staff weapon. Daniel and Carter walked between them, the archeologist videotaping everything he saw with a digital camera he pulled off his belt while the astrophysicist fiddled with her scanner device she had brought with her.

As they got closer to their destination, jack looked over his shoulder at his old 2iC and her toy. He hadn't seen this particular one before in her labs. Not that he went in her labs much since he tended to break her doohickeys.

"Carter? What is that thing anyways?"

Sam looked up at the general and smiled, albeit a bit wistfully. "Something Dad gave me before he, uh, you know.." She told him. Sadness crossed her face quickly and Jack was going to apologize for bringing up memories of Jacob Carter's recent death but Carter pressed foreward, unwilling to fall into a hole of depression "I never got to use it before in the field. He remembered how I was always complaining about having to carry so many different meters and scanners and such that he had a Tok'Ra engineer miniaturize most of my tools and install them into one interface. Mass Spectrometer, EM Analyzer, Barometer,

"So… it's a Tok'order?" Jack asked, deadpan.

Daniel groaned at that while Carter blushed a bit. "Yeah, sir, I guess it is. Though I think we could find a better name for it."

"Oh no, Carter. I'm the General so I get to name things. Tok'order it is, then." Jack said, happily, and kept walking.

Carter grumbled.

"Ah, Ah.. No grumbling Carter."

Daniel lowered his Camera and leaned into Carter, mock whispering. "I think Teal'c should have got jack something else then that Star Trek Box Set for Christmas. He's been naming all sorts of things in my labs in Klingon."

"Indeed Daniel Jackson." Teal'c spoke up from behind them, " Next Christmas I will endeavor to purchase a gift for O'Neill that will not elicit him to name things in the style of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine."

Jack looked over his shoulder. "You know, I am right here." He reminded them. "Now stop whining. Q'apla!"

Finally the quartet of Explorers reached the base of the state. The distance between it's two grey-white feet was almost forty feet, and right in the very center was a single four-sided obelisk roughly ten feet in height. Like a miniature version of the Washington monument it was like an elongated pyramid that tapered sharply at the top. It's sides were smooth white marble with light grey veins. It had no writing on it.

Walking around the obelisk, Jack frowned. "Not much to look at." He commented. "I mean, shouldn't it be covered in squiggles or something. All the other tall.. rock.. uhm.. thingys we find usually are."

Carter walked to one side, running her tok'order (whe would kill jack later for getting that name stuck in her head) over it's smooth surface while Daniel stoop on the side opposite of her, leaning in and squinting at the smooth surface but not touching. Because touching was bad. And he was going to be damned if he didn't start learning that.

"Well, maybe it's just here to look pretty.." The archeologist said. He raised his hand to readjust his glassed and bumped his faceplate. Scowling, he shook his head and leaned even closer. "I mean, Most Ancient technology, even the things that are not made to actually look technological, have writings or glyphs or even panels on them. This thing is completely smooth."

"And I'm not picking up any power readings from it. So I don't think it's an actual technological device." Carter responded.

Jack bit his lower lip. "Well, ya know," he drawled. "Maybe it's not Ancient."

Peeking his head around the obelisk, Daniel raised a brow. "Why would you say that? The Ancient Sapphire Room all but said this was an Ancient Outpost of some sort."

"No it didn't." Jack said. "It just said there were three ZPM's here."

Carter peeked around from her side now. "Then who built this thing? And what for?"

Teal'c spoke up. "I believe O'niell is inferring that this obelisk was built by the Asgard."

"Right on the money, T." Jack said with a smile and a thumbs up.

Daniel look up at the statue, frowning. "I know it seems obvious to you, Jack, but just because there is a massive statue of a primeval Asguard standing over us doesn't mean they made this thing or even this place."

"And why not?"

"Well, for one, The Asguard don't use ZPM technology." Carter supplied, "And second, over all the years we've been studying what little they left behind we know the Ancients aren't exactly renowned for making things this obvious. I think they like using misdirection and puzzles to make it harder to solve any of the riddles about them"

Jack hmmm'd and stepped closer to the Obelisk. "Oh, I dunno." He said, reaching out towards the smooth surface with his glove. "Sometimes the best place to hide a tree is in a forest."

Before anyone could stop him, his hand pressed against the side of the Obelisk.

And nothing happened.

Carter and Daniel took a collective breath of relief while Teal'c just shook his head. "Jack!" Daniel chastised his friend, "Please don't do that. You're always getting onto me for touching things I shouldn't so can't you take your own advice?"

Before Jack could answer there was a rumbling sound. The entire cavernous room began to shake lightly. Daniel sighed then turned and threw up his hands while the other three brought up their weapons and turned around, backs to the obelisk on all four faces, looking outward.

"Good going, Jack." Daniel mumbled as he brought up his weapon and looked around, trying to pinpoint the source of the disturbance. One by one the members of Sg-1 and their ex-leader searched for what was causing the rumbling but they detected nothing. Not even Carter with her Tok'order. Finally the rumbling stopped and Jack exhaled loudly.

"Well, that was strange," he murmered as he turned back to the Obelisk. "You worry to much Daniel. It was probably just a earthquake or some.. HOLY HANNAH!"

In a blur, the three other team members turned around, weapons raised once more and this time extended and armed with that click-hiss sound Zzats and Staff weapons made when opening. Four high powered weapons from four apex angled were powered up and brought to bear on an Obelisk…

That was no longer there.

Instead, in it's place, was an exact replica of the Statue above them in every detail save it was only about 6 feet tall. It stood there, in the exact same pose, facing O'Niell.

"Okay, so we got another statue now?" he asked, confused.

And As all of them stepped closer to look at it, the small statues eyes opened. It wasn't a statue at all. It was alive.

Quickly and startled, Jack stepped back as his team circled the Asguard slowly to get behind their leader. The Asguard, it's features much more humanlike then it's modern descendants', regarded the four inquisitively. She was beautiful in her own not-quite human way. And she was definitely a she. It was apparent she wasn't quite genderless as Thor was. She wore a skintight suit the exact colour of her skin that made her seem almost sexless, but there was a softness and roundness to her features that screamed female.

"Uhm, Hi." Jack said, raising his free gloved hand to wave slightly at her.

In return she stared a moment longer, then fell to one knee in a bow, head hung low. "You have finally returned." She whispered in a melodius voice. "We had Feared that you had not escaped in time."

Jack looked at the others. Daniel just shrugged and no one else had anything to offer, so he just turned back to the Asguard woman. "Uhm, yeah. We took the scenic route home. Sorry bout that. Whats your name? And what are you doing here?"

The Ancient Asguard woman looked up, a quizzical look in her dark eyes. "I am Bestla." She sang to them. "And I am the keeper and protector of this place."

Jack frowned. "Why are you a keeper for the Ancients?" he asks.

Bestla slowly rose, looking shocked that anyone would have to ask why.

"You Question my duty?" She sang, "My loyalty? I am here for the same reason I have always been here. Because a child will always do what she can to protect her parents."

And everyone fell silent with shock.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Author's Note:** So many reviews. I thank you all again, and as always am inspired by any response. Here's the latest installment. The weirdest one yet, probably. While I had the general idea sort of plotted out in my mind, I basically wrote this in one heave-ho as it came to me. I hope it isn't too convoluted and/or confusing. Again, it was written late at night since I am working a lot. Future installments may come every second/third day now for a while. Though I'll TRY for daily/second day_

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**Chapter 6**

There was a stunned silence as the four explorers stared at the pre-modern Asguard. Bestla returned their stares with one of her own; an inquisitive and curious look more then shock.

"What is wrong?" she asked in her musical voice, sounding a tinge worried.

It was Daniel who finally shrugged off the stupor. He inhaled deeply and shakily. "The Ancients created you?" he asked slowly.

Bestla blinked at this. "Created us?" Then something dawned on her. "You have forgotten? Has it been so long?"

Jack looked a bit uneasy. "It's been over Fifty Thousand years."

Bestla looked visibly startled now. "Fifty Thousand!" she exclaimed. "That cannot be. You were supposed to return sooner then that."

Daniel held up his hands to calm her. "Well, they didn't." he told her. "We're not the Ancients. Not Directly. We're the ancestors of the few that survived after they left. We're from Earth." And from there he gave her a very quick rundown on what little they knew. The Plague. The Seven Cities leaving for distant galaxies. Atlantis's refugees returning to find the survivors they left behind having descended into barbarism. The Ascension of the Atlantian Ancients. The Goa'uld enslaving the Tauri. The Revolt that overthrew Ra. The rediscovery of the gate and the woes of the past 10 years. They didn't say much of anything about the Asguard, however, not knowing what was safe to tell her.

It took over an hour, even being a grossly condensed version. Jack, Carter and even Teal'c helped time to time. Adding bits and pieces to the story. Bestla asked very few questions, nodding slowly ever few minutes as she absorbed their relatively brief yet engrossing tale.

And when they were done the great chamber was silent once more. Bestla had closed her eyes and seemed to be thinking. Of what, no one in the group knew. It was hard to read an Asguard, even this more human-like one.

Finally she opened her eyes and just nodded. "I see." She said.

Jack blinked and looked taken aback. "That's it?" he asked, curious and a bit suspicious. It was never this easy. "You see? We give you an hour's crash course of fifty thousand years of history and you don't have anything to ask."

"Oh, I have much to ask," she told Jack assuredly. "But I do not doubt anything you have said. Tell me, Children of the Ancients, what you yourselves are called. You know my name."

Daniel grimaced. "I'm Sorry." He apologized as he started motioning to the group in order. "My name is Daniel Jackson. This is Jack O'Neill, Samantha Carter, and Teal'c."

Jack waved hello with a smile. Sam smiled as friendly as she can and Teal'c bowed. Bestla bowed back to the four then straightened.

"It is a pleasure to meet you." She told them. "Daniel Jackson, your story has been most informative, though there are a few mistakes in it at the earliest points. I think I should fill them in for you but first, let me answer your question. No, we were not created by the Ancients. But we are still their children."

Everyone looked confused so Bestla went on. "A thousand years before my millennia long slumber my people were a very violent and un-unified one, much like you described your own being now. We had many states and nations constantly at war with each other. Our destructiveness pushed our technological progress very quickly, but at the price of nearly destroyed Yggdrasil, our home world.

"We spread among the stars in many factions, hoping that to make the distance between us greater would alleviate the tensions, but it did not work as we planned. We continued our warring and laid much wasted to portions of our galaxy."

"Finally, at the apex of our war we discovered our galaxy's core had collapsed and formed a great black hole and would destroy everything we knew in a few millennia. We realized that we would have to unify and leave our home, together as one, if we wished to survive."

"In a great generational fleet, for even with faster then light capability the travel between galaxies was a long one, the remnants of my ancestors left the home galaxy and traveled for this one. We had the passion to survive, but the trek was still long and by the time we entered your galaxy we had but a handful of ship remaining."

"We found a planet on which we could colonize but when we arrived we found it was an outpost for your own Ancient ancestors. They greeted us with welcome arms and heard our story. Immediately they offered us a place amongst them, adopting us as their own family.

"We lived in peace with the Ancients for almost a millennia. We lived among side of them and the other 3 great races of this galaxy, exploring and learning. It was a golden age for my people. The ancients let us learn at our own pace, evolve technologically and as a people, only giving us the slightest nudge foreword when we needed it."

Bestla lowered her head now and inhaled deeply. "Then the Phage came and destroyed it all."

Throughout her story, SG-1 had been silent. Now Daniel seemed to fidget a bit. "Phage… as in the plague?" he asked. "The plague that killed off most of the Ancients."

Bestla frowned. "You refer to the Phage as if they were just an common illness, Daniel Jackson." She said.

Now Carter looked confused. "I'm sorry. They?" she asked. "You mean it wasn't an actual plagued that almost killed off the Ancients?"

Sighing, the ancient Asguard shook her head in an almost human way. "No, at least not the way you must be thinking of a plague." She told them. "In a way, it is my people's fault, at least partially. You see, we are the ones who discovered the Phage. And awoke them."

Teal'c now spoke up for the first time in a long while, his deep voice curious. "You mean the Phage were an alien species?"

Nodding, Bestla's shoulders drooped. "More alien then we could have thought." She told the Jaffa in a cold tone. "The Phage were a sentient Virus that infected anything they touched. Plants. Animals. Sentients. Anything composed of organic matter. What they infected, they controlled and could change to suit their whims, or whim for we were never sure if the Phage were a number of separate viral entities or one large gestalt. Perhaps they were both, or neither. But the fact remained, The Phage existed for one purpose and one purpose alone. To infect anything and everything they came in contact with. To feed off organic life to create more of its own."

"And that's what it did. One of our vessels discovered the Phage on a dead world around a dying first generation star. They had discovered remnants of a civilization that existed over a million years previous. While examining the ruins they were somehow infected by the Phage and taken over, their new goal to spread the phage as far as possible after eons of lying dormant."

"No one knew at first what had happened to the vessel and its crew. It just disappeared, which wasn't unheard of for any species vessels. After a cursory search we forgot about them and continued with our explorations and learnings."

"So the vessel traveled across the galaxy, slowly infecting world after world at a time, and those worlds infected other worlds. "

"By the time the Ancients, the Asguard, and the other two great races realized what was happening, the Phage controlled Dozens of planets and peoples. When we discovered what the cause was we tried at first to communicate with the Phage through our infected brethren but they would not listen. They were part of the Phage now and the Phage had only one ultimate goal. To Infect all life and make it its own."

"Thus the Great War began. The Four Races against their own. Brothers against brothers. Sisters against Sisters. Children against Parents and Lovers against each other. Battles were fought across the entire galaxy as we banded together and fought for our very existence as free individuals. We spent centuries searching for a cure but never found one. Never found a way to free our friends and brethren except by razing entire worlds of life. It was the only way we could actually destroy the Phage. Only in Death could our own find release."

Hanging her head, Bestla once again closed her eyes. "But for every world we razed, two more were taken by the Phage. Soon almost half the life bearing worlds, even those with no sentient life, which we had either colonized by ship or Stargate were in the thrall of the Phage. At that point we knew it was only a matter of time before the enemy would be able to destroy us."

"In our hour of greatest need, an team of scientists from all the four races made two great discoveries. The first was a Vaccine. A virus in it's own right, it was anathema to the Phage. But it wasn't perfect. It couldn't cure those who were already infected. While on plants and non-sentient life forms it was almost a hundred percent effective it only protected about sixty percent of Nox who were inoculated. The reliability fell to thirty percent for the Furlings, less then twenty for the Ancients. And was almost useless on the Asguard.

"The second great discovery was that those infected by the Phage could only serve them for a few years at a time before they burned out and died. If the infecting Phage didn't leave the victim right away and infect another they would die."

"With these two discoveries a plan was made. The surviving peoples were inoculated as quickly as possible, a great medical program that swept across the free worlds like wildfire. Entire worlds were virally vaccinated, from the simplest life forms all the way up to their sentient masters."

"But even with the inoculations, the four great races realized that the fighting would continue for centuries longer, perhaps millennia. Fore while percentages of their peoples, except my own, would not be infected a number still would be and while they would not be able to infect everyone they would strive to destroy their non-infected enemies the old fashioned way for generation after dwindling generation to come as fewer and fewer were able to be infected and either The Phage died off, or they killed those they couldn't have."

"Realizing that they could still all perish, the Four Races began calling all their remaining colonies under their control homeward. Inhabited worlds became places of ghosts and failed dreams. Soon the great empires that had remained were nothing more then a few closely packed worlds apiece."

"The Nox were the first to completely withdraw from Galactic Civilization, hiding themselves completely away from the eyes of their enemies and former allies both. Then the nomadic and passionate Furlings slowly began to whatever secret place they called haven."

"All that remained were the Ancients and The Asguard. The Ancients spent many years trying to find a way to inoculate us but to no avail. Time was running short, perhaps a generation at most before the Phage tried to infect those that could be on Earth, or attack it with the fleets it had under it's infected control."

"My generation could not be saved by inoculation. But our children could. Ancient and Asguard worked together to genetically modify our young, splicing them with fragments of Ancient DNA as a way to make them susceptible to the Viral Inoculation. It worked, greater then we had hoped for the minute percentage of Ancient DNA mixed with our own made our young over sixty percent immune."

"But the splicing and the birthing took time. We tried cloning after a long while in hopes of speeding up the process to create a viable gene pool from which the new Asguard could grow healthy but we no longer had time. Scouts had reported that the surviving Phage were slowly turning in our direction and within a year, maybe two, they would be at Earth."

"Our Allies gone into hiding and our own numbers so very low it was decided to implement the final emergency plan to hopefully ensure our species survival. The Ancients recalled every last bit of their resources to convert the Seven Cities into viable starships that would leave Earth and attempt to reseed other galaxies in hops of continuing their race in one form or another."

"And while some of the new Asguard decided to go with them, the majority opted to fly to their own galaxy and start over as well. Very few of my generation, however, decided to go. With the New Asguard gene pool so small, The Ancients gave them the genetic technology had used to they could hopefully rectify the problem."

"And we, my generation, remained behind with the few ancients who refused to abandon their home world. We watched the Seven Cities and the New Asguard Fleet rise and leave for their destinations among the farthest stars while we manned the remaining Outposts. The Ancients controlled the one on Earth while we manned this one on the planet you call Mars but which we called Aresia."

"We never stopped looking for a way to defeat the Phage, hoping we could somehow find a way to actually defeat them and recall everyone home. We made many great discoveries and shared them via the Stargate with the other Cities and the New Asguard Fleet on their outbound flight but we never made the discovery we needed."

"When the Phage finally were within arms reach of Earth, the Ancients knew there was almost no hope. But being as noble as they were, they would not give up without a fight, nor let those less powerful of them come to harm if possible."

"Before the Phage arrived, The Ancients downloaded every erg of knowledge they had into the Great Repository beneath us now, in hopes that one day their descendents, if there were any, or the descendents of the Seven Cities would return to gather it. They built the great face so that if future generations had fallen to barbarism and one day came here, they would find that their kind had been there before. They installed the Negatorium, the one technology they had recently discovered that blinded the Phage to our presence and made me and my remaining people, the caretakers of this place. They placed us in deep sleep and promised us we would awaken one day."

Bestla looked at Each one of them in turn, now, pulling herself to her ful height and poised regally yet humbly at the same time.

"And you did. You kept your promise. Maybe eons later then we all thought, but you kept it all the same."

"Thank you."


	7. Chapter 7

_**Author's Note**: Well, after a few days of hard work in retail I have a chapter ready. Again, I was tired, so please don't hurt m too much. Yeah, we're stil on Mars. Don't complain! After ten years of traipsing around the Galaxy, Mars deserves a wee bit of attention __ Anyways, thanks again for the reviews. Hope I'm answering enough questions in cool ways._

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**Chapter 7**

SG-1 fell silent once more, the story that the ancient Asguardian told them sinking in. So many questions had been answered, at least glossed over, while a million new one had been made clear.

Clear impressed by the entire tale, Jack shook his head and chuckled with faint amusement. He eyed the Asguard female, two words he never thought he'd put together, and nodded.

"Well, we didn't wake you on purpose." He reminded her. "Though in any event, better late then never, right?"

She nodded and returned what was easily recognized as a smile. Yes, these old Asguard were more humanlike then their modern descendents. "Yes, better late then never, Jack O'Niell." She told him. "It is good to know there is still a universe to wake to now. My brethren will be so pleased."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "Brethren?" he asked cautiously. "There are more?"

Bestla motioned to the far side of the dome, to an opening that had not been there before. "This is the Ante-Chamber of our outpost, Teal'c of the Jaffa." She told him. "I am the Gate Keeper. Had you been enemies I would have dispatched with you quickly then returned to my slumber." This made the others squirm a bit, but she didn't seem to notice. "But you are the Children of the Ancient's, just as in a way my people are. And it seems the Phage have died out since you have never mentioned finding any remnants of them. So now I can awake my people and we can rejoice."

Daniel cleared his throat, no mean feet in the restrictive suit he wore. "Uhm, Bestla, how many of you are there? Of your people, I mean."

The Asguard turned and started walking towards the exit that lead deeper into the Great Face. "You will see."

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"Wow." 

That was all Jack could say. Actually, it was all ANYONE could say. What they were seeing was almost mind boggling.

"Wow" Daniel echoed as he leans over the railing of the small balcony and looked down. He squinted into the depth of the deep shaft that fell far below them, hundreds upon hundreds of feet.

The cavernous chamber made the reception room with it's Liberty-sized Asguard statue seem like a doll house almost. It was a large cylinder almost a quarter mile across and almost half a mile deep. In the Very center of it, rising from the bottom, was a Pillar. Ann along every surface of the outer wall of the room and the surface of the pillar was covered in crystalline bubbles.

And within each bubble there was an Ancient Asguard.

"This is amazing." Carter said as she looked down as well.

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There must be thousands of them."

"Indeed, Colonel Carter." Teal'c said as he surveyed the chamber. "I would surmise there be hundreds of thousands of Ancient Asguard."

Bestla stood at the outermost outcropping of the balcony and a small obelisk, much like the one SG-1 Had found when they first entered but only up to her waist. She ran fingers over one of the flat facets of the obelisks apex as if it were some sort of terminal.

"Two hundred and forty eight thousand, six hundred and eighty nine." She corrected the Jaffa. A Small Hologram suddenly projected from the obelisk's tip, a flat sheet of Archaic Asguard writing that quickly scrolled before her. "We have only lost 52 units in the entire Hibernaculum." She said, voice suddenly saddened. "I am sorry, my friends, that you could not see the future." She looked away from the Sleeping Asguard, tears in her black eyes. Daniel quickly walked over to console her while Jack stepped back to give them room. And to call over both Teal'c and Carter.

Sure that the Asguard couldn't overhear, the general looked at his friends. "Well, we're in fine form today." He whispered.

"I'm not sure what you mean, sir."

"Neither am I, O'Neill."

Jack sighed and looked back at Daniel and Bestla again for single moment. "We come here looking for a ZPM, three of them actually, and we find an Ancient Outpost that survived an intergalactic war, which apparently has the /entire/ pre-ascended Library of Ancient Knowledge if what our friend tells us is correct, and best of all? I think we just solved a problem for Thor?"

Carter smiled and nodded, catching on. "I see what you mean." She told him. "Not only would these ancient Asguard maybe help provide a clue to helping Thor solve their cloning problem but..."

"But also the influx of a quarter million ancient Asguard would increase the current Asguard population which has become dangerously low because of their cloning problems and the recent war with the Replicators." Teal'c finished for her.

Jack grinned. "Right. Two birds with one stone. And just think how in debt the Asguard would be to us. Well, not that they aren't already and not that I'd ever deny our buddy Thor anything, but it would sure make a lot of the other Asguard look at us with as much respect as Thor."

Before he could say anything else, Daniel quickly inserted himself into the little huddle. "We may have a slight problem." He told them quickly. He looked over his shoulder at Bestla, who was quietly working at her controls.

Jack's brows furrowed. "What? What's wrong?" he asked quickly as Daniel looked back at them. "Don't tell me the place is gonna self destruct or something."

The archeologist shook his head. "No, Jack, it isn't." he told him. "I was talking to Bestla about the ZPM's, which she calls the Omegalium by the way. Strange word. Latin derivation, which is close to the Ancient meaning, is.."

"Daniel, get on with it please?"

"Oh yeah, right. Anyways, I told her about us coming here for the Omegaliums and I found out that we can't take them."

Carter frowned. "Why not?" she asked. "She said that they were keeping this ace for us. The Descendents of the Ancients. If that's why she was left here to guard this place why wouldn't she want us to take them?"

Daniel shook his head. "It's not that she doesn't want to, Sam. But the Three modules are all in use right now. One of them powers the cloak shield thing. Another powers the Hibernaculum, you know, all these suspended animation units."

Carter frowned even more. "If we took the one from the shield, then an enemy might detect this place. Or maybe even some earth based project or satellite in orbit."

"And we can't wake up a quarter million ancient Asguard." Jack cut in. "I mean, not at once. Oi, what a mess. Wait!" he suddenly exclaimed. "There are supposed to be three of them, right?"

Teal'c nodded. "That is correct O'Neil."

Jack nodded smugly. "See, that one's not being used, right?"

Daniel shuffled his boots a bit. "Well, no. Not per se..."

"Ah ah, Daniel," Jack warned, "Spill it."

Sighing, Daniel looked his friend dead in the eyes. "The third ZPM is powering their Stargate."

Carter blanched. "Wait, they have a Stargate?" she asked.

Nodding, Daniel looked at Bestla. "Yes, and from what she told me this one is different."

"How so?"

"Sam, it's the Master Stargate."

Jack looked confused. "I don't get it. What do you mean by Master Stargate?"

The archeologist straightened his shoulders. "Remember the report from Atlantis? Rodney McKay told us how the Stargate in Atlantis is different then the rest in Pegasus."

"Yeah, I remember. Something about it not spinning like the rest."

"Actually, sir, he said that it lit up like it was digital and that it was hooked up to a very sophisticated dialing system while the rest of the gates had DHD's similar to ours. And that it's Crystal was the only one able to Dial Earth."

Daniel nodded. "Right. And that's because apparently Atlantis's Stargate is the master Stargate for the Pegasus gate system. And its crystal was grown from the First Crystal."

"Wait, wait... So you're saying that neither Stargate we found on earth was the original Earth Stargate?" Jack asked.

"Exactly. When the Phage were coming to Earth the Ancients moved as much important technology as they could to Aresia and beneath this cloak shield thingy. I mean Mars, sorry. Anyways they switched the Master gate on Earth with the one for Mars to protect it because it is what coordinates the entire network in our galaxy."

Sam looked shaken by this. "You mean if someone destroyed it, the rest of the network would crash?"

Daniel nodded. "Yeah, apparently. It's the hub of the network. It keeps the backup of all the parameters and code and has a bunch of other functions as well. If the Master Gate is destroyed, and you have the crystal, you could install it in another gate and use that one with some reduced capacity. But if the Master Gate Crystal is destroyed.. Well she said it would be possible to make a new one but that it would be a lot of work and the system would be

down until it was replaced.

Jack made a face at this. "That doesn't explain why we couldn't take the ZPM from it."

Daniel looked at his friend as if he were dense, something he did less of these days but when he did it really meant something. "Jack, If you're on the internet and you unplug your computer, what happens?"

"Crap, you mean if we unplug the ZPM from this master crystal the Stargates won't work at all? That's nuts? I thought Stargates all had their own power sources. How would unhooking one turn them all off."

"I don't know Jack. That's just what she said. Bestla told me that they would stop working."

Carter looked as if she wanted to rush over to Bestla and ask her questions on the master Gate. Jack just nodded and let her walk over, teal'c following behind. The General looked at his friend the moment they were alone though and changed their comm channel to private.

"Daniel, what the hell are we supposed to do?" he asked. "I mean, we went along with your cockamamie scheme so we could get some Zero Point goodness, dial up a few ancient cities, maybe make some friends and get some technology. We can't do that if we can't get the PM's back to Earth. It's not like we could set up a base here."

"Why not?"

"Daniel, have you gone nuts? Even if we had more then one fully operational ship, which we don't since the Daedalus is in Pegasus kicking some Wraith ass and the Icarus is still not even half way finished, do you know how long it would take us to ferry enough equipment and people here to set up a viable base? It took us months with the Alpha site, and we had a Stargate to help us."

"And we still do."

Jack scowled. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Jack, didn't you here what I said earlier?" Daniel asked, amused that his friend missed it. Not that it was unusual for Jack to miss something in one of his speeches. He did it all the time at briefings. "The Ancients switched the Master gate from Earth with the Mars gate."

"Daniel, you can't have two gates on different planets in a single star system." Jack said, happy that he was able to point out something that was obvious scientific to Daniel for a change and not vice versa. "I've asked Carter this once after the whole Antarctic and Russian gate thing. When there are two gates the 'master' gate is the one with the DHD or which has more power behind it if there are two gates. And even then you can't dial between two gates on one planet, let alone one solar system.

"Ah, but you can, Jack." Daniel told him, crossing his arms and looking as smug as Jack had looked a few minutes earlier when stating the obvious.

"What do you think the Ninth Chevron is for?"


	8. Chapter 8

_**Author's Note: **Well, we're finally done with inventory at work. I hope this means that I will get more chances to plan out this story. Not that I don't have a plan. Really. I do. J But I have it sorta in my head and am filling in the gaps rather then preplanning at the moment._

_Anyways, I hope you like this next chapter. Still confusing, I bet ;) And thnks for the encouragement. Remember, suggestions are welcome as well as standard reviews and critiques._

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**Chapter 8**

Silently Bestla led Jack and SG- through the warrens of the Great Face of Mars. Since leaving the Hibernaculum, her words had been sparse at best as she, undoubtedly, mulled over the deaths of her people. Yes, the number who had died in their forced slumber had been almost microscopic in comparison to those who had survived but they weighed heavily on her soul.

The humans and the Jaffa quietly followed her through the tunnels that had been hewn from the red stone. The walls of the highway wide corridor were at once angular yet curved, sleek and smooth as if buffed or coated with some sort of transparent polymer. The faint lights that had slowly come online as they traversed deeper into the face seemed to make the walls almost glow with heat yet they were definitely cool to the touch.

Touch that had become much easier when Bestla, in one of her little bouts of speech, informed the team that the atmosphere was breathable for them and they had removed helmets and gloves. Of course they had guessed this since she hadn't asphyxiated when she awoke but they had played it safe since they couldn't be exactly positive that Asguard, ancient or modern, were able to breath atmospheres other then the ones they were familiar with.

The deeper they descended into the face, the broader the tunnel became until it finally opened through an archway and beyond that complete and utter darkness.

The five sentients walked to the very edge of the tongue of light that the tunnel cast, looking out into the vast inkiness. Jack had pulled held up his helmet, between his hands, and flicked on the imbedded lights. Beams of white lanced through the dark but it was so pervasive that only the very faintest of shadows within darker shadows could be made out.

Daniel stepped up between the general and the first-evolution Asguardian woman and squinted into the blackness. "Ooookay." He murmured. "What is this place?"

Reaching to a small pouch on her silver-clad hip, Bestla removed a smooth round ruby the size of an apple and held it out to the Archeologist. Looking curious, the reached out to grab it when Jacks voice made him pause.

"Ah ah," Jack warned, "Careful Danny-boy. I believe we all know what happened the last time a woman handed a man a red.. round.. thingy."

Rolling his eyes, Daniel took the offered ruby and looked deep into it. The moment his fingers touched the small sphere, however, a great rumbling occurred. Much like the one in the Statue Chamber it took the group by surprise. Except for Bestla, however. She turned her back on them and peered into the dark.

Carter and Teal'c quickly brought up there weapons, ready for anything that could perceivably jump out of the immersive dark. Jack groaned and turned on Daniel looking extremely irate. "Damnit, Daniel, how many time have I told you to not touch.."

"Jack!" Daniel asked, his eyes going wide as he raised his hand to point over Jacks shoulder. Jack raises a brow and slowly turned and his eyes, like Daniel's opened wide with disbelief.

"HOLY HANNAH!"

Seven threads of light rose from the ground from what must have been seven periphery marks around this room. They rose quickly, seeming to impossibly arc and bend towards each other, speeding up as they got closer. Closer. Closer still. And when the seven threads if luminosity touched high above them.

The world flashed white!

Everyone quickly covered their eyes, temporarily blinded as if by a sudden nova. And just as quickly as the whiteness came, it dispersed, and every one slowly looked up.

And into a majestic city.

The room was far more then a room, yes. It was a hundred times as massive as the Statue room. It was so large it couldn't even be classified as a cavern. A perfect dome carved from the rock that had to be miles in diameter, maybe ten at most. Almost two miles high perhaps at its apex. Small white clouds seems to float across the domed roof, obscuring a blue-white pinpoint of light that shined like a sun would.

The vast City seemed to be made up in circular rings. At the outer most regions along the periphery there were almost no buildings. It was separated from another circular region inwards by a deep ring-like trench. And that section was separated from an even more inner region by a ring-like trench that glowed with reflective highlights of what could have been ice.

Each circular region, going from outermost inwards, was smaller and smaller, yet the buildings became more compact. Spires and towers of White-grey marble inlaid with silver and gold like materials.

But in the innermost circle, separated from the rest of the vast city by one of these frozen ring-lakes, was an tall single cylindrical building that seemed to rise almost half the distance from the ground to the apex. Taller then any building humans had ever built in conceivable memory. A column of the white-grey marble dotted with reflective circular windows.

Bestla turned to the group and smiled for the first time in hours at the awe-stricken humans. Even Teal'c was speechless at what he saw.

"Welcome to Vanaheim." She told them.

Daniel's awe quickly gave over to excitement as he quickly turned away from the City at Bestla. "Vanaheim?" he asked. "Then you didn't call yourself Asguard fifty thousand years ago?."

Carter stepped up, eyes still watering from the change in light and the beauty of the city. "Daniel, what are you talking about."

The archeologist seemed to almost bounce.

"This city. Vanaheim. It means "Home of the Vanir." He quickly explained. "In Norse mythology there were three worlds or lands that made up Asguard, the uppermost level of the World tree of Yggdrasil. One was named for the Uppermost level itself, called Asguard as well home of the warrior gods called the Aesir. The Second world was Vanahiem, the world of the Vanir. Wild nature and fertility gods, the sworn enemies of the warrior gods of the Aesir. They were considered to be the bringers of health, youth, fertility, luck and wealth, and masters of magic. And the third world was Alfheim, land of the Light Elves. But there is so little written on them…"

Bestla looked at Daniel Jackson queerly, confused. "You know so many names of my people from our past but refer to them as your own myths and put them in strange and confusing contexts." She said slowly. "Yes, this is Vanaheim. And I am Vanir. And I am also Asguard. When our wars were coming to an end, only nine distinct peoples remained on Yggdrasil. We spread to nine worlds, a world for each people, and from these we slowly began our new empire. When we learned of our galaxy's imminent destruction we realized we had to band together. We merged what was left of our peoples and called ourselves the Asguard, as a unified people, yet we retained our cultural designations to give us historical identity. This city was created by the Vanir Asguard, as we were the most technically inclined.

Jack raised a brow. "You know, no offence or anything Bestla, but your people confuse the hell out of me."

Bestla raises a hairless brow in echo of the general. "My people? Generl Jack O'Neill, you and your colleagues have let slip more the once a familiarity of my people in some way, yet you never mentioned them in your story to me of your history. Is there a reason for this?

Biting his lower lip, Jack looked at his friends. He didn't know what to say. Even Daniel looked a bit sheepish. Carter just remained still and silent.

Thank god for Teal'c.

"Mistress Bestla." The Jaffa said on his respectful baritone, "We are quite familiar with your Descendents. The Asguard have proven to be great and honorable allies in our war against the Goa'uld and the mechanical threat of the Replicators of which we spoke very briefly."

Bestla frowned. "Then why have you said so little. Do you somehow believe we are not worthy of knowing of our children?"

Jumping into the fray, Carter quickly shook her head. "Oh no, Bestla. It's just that we wished for you to meet them yourself and get any answers about them directly from the source. The Asguard we know are vastly different then you. We didn't want to color them good or bad. You know, taint your perception before you had a chance to meet them?"

Making a sound of affirmation, the Vanir nodded. "I see. Your metaphor is confusing but I believe I understand. I am very happy that my people have survived so long. They must have advanced greatly in the almost fifty millennia since our children left with the Ancients. I only hope we can somehow be of use to them if they are as advanced as I could believe."

Nobody commented on that one. They just nodded and smiled.

Finally Bestla the Vanir turned and motioned to an avenue that led all the way into the center of the alien metropolis. "Come. We have spoken long enough of this. We have much time in the future to continue this conversation. Let us repair to the Great Tower and the Master Gate."


	9. Chapter 9

_**Author's note:** Ah, I'm doing good. I haven't updated a story this regularly in.,. well never! J Hope you enjoy. I /do/ put this through a spellchecker. SO Don't know how I miss some of the bad spellings. Unless it's because some words are in there are Canadian spellings. You know. Check/Cheque and Armor/Armour and stuff like that. Anyways, hope you enjoy and thanks for the continued support._

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**Chapter Nine**

The march through the city of the Vanir was unsettling at best, The closer they got to the center of the grand alien metropolis the eerier it became. Buildings gradually became taller and taller and taller yet, more grandiose, but they all shared something in common.

They were all dead.

Or maybe they were just slumbering. It didn't matter either way. The city was silent in the way a city shouldn't be and it was something that disturbed even Teal'c, who was the hardest to unfetter.

Bestla led them down the broad avenue, mile after mile, passing over no less then three bridges that spanned the ring-lakes of ice. Occasionally she would look at something, a shop or a building, and sigh, whispering that "They would soon live once more" to assure herself.

Finally, after an hour and a half they reached the great tower. Taking the Ruby orb from Daniel, the Vanir woman held it up in front of a crystalline doorway. The opaque crystal vibrated once then slid aside like a panel door, revealing a spacious lobby within. It was very human, almost, like it belonged in some corporate or government headquarters. Spacious and with numerous benches and chairs. There were what looked like plant holders with no plants actually in them and a fountain that was frozen.

Every panel they walked by slowly glowed to life, activated by the presence of the Ruby Sphere. They came to a double panel door which automatically opened and they all stepped in, at Bestla's urging. The doors closed and there as a flash of white and they opened again to reveal.. a different floor.

Carter looked very intrigued. "Hey, this is like the transporter they found in Atlantis." She said, looking pleased with her assumption. The Vanir simply nodded, smiling faintly as she led them down a broad and door less hallway. Door less that is except for a single opening at the far end.

"Yes, the teleporter system that the Ancients used was a system we ourselves gave them. Strangely, while they had developed Gate technology and faster then light capability on their own, they had never sought out a matter transport system themselves. We did, though, and they thankfully used it with our blessing." She told them humbly.

When they arrived at the far doorway it did not open automatically like every other door they had passed. Instead, Bestla placed the red ruby into a socket. It glowed an angry red for a long moment and then al could hear the loud thunk like sounds of physical locks, one after another, disengaging. When they stopped the doors opened with a hiss.

The room beyond the heavy doors was large, though not stupendously so. It was like a hangar bay almost in a large spaceship, an entire wall that was about a hundred feet high with a transparent wall from floor to ceiling. Along the inner walls were walkways and balconies that looked out into the bay and the great window-like wall beyond it.

And in the exact center of the large and uncluttered floor stood a stargate.

_The_ Stargate.

_The Master_ Stargate.

_The First_ Stargate.

Like all others that would come later, it was tall and round. Not that anyone was expecting it any other way but you never knew. It wasn't any larger then other gates though the crossection was thicker perhaps. But beyond that, any semblance ended.

Like the Atlantis Stargate, it had no rotating inner track and it's Constellation symbols weren't extruded as much as etched into the Naquadah, each star making up a constellation seeming to be a small round crystal that must light up, again like on Atlantis. The gate seemed more heavy duty and digital as if all the other gates ,except those within the main cities must have been like Atlantis', were made to be simpler and easier to use. And still this First Gate was even more heavy duty then the Atlantis one.

Everyone from the human team looked in awe and reverence at the First Gate, aware that they had found what was probably the source of everything that they had seen or accomplished. This gate was the one that made every other gate possible. The template on which the Stargate network, which had been both a blessing and a curse, had been based all those tens of thousands of years ago.

SO of course Jack had to say something dumb,

"I dunno. I thought it would have been… well.. taller."

Daniel groaned loudly and shook his head while Carter, not as immune by O'neillisms as she believed herself to be, just rolled her eyes. Teal'c didn't even deign O'Neill's comment with a raising of his majestic brow.

Bestla only smiled that strangely attractive smile of hers and led the group to a circle etched on the floor. When everyone was within it there was a flash and they were suddenly within an identical ring on the floor, yet upon one of the balconies overlooking the First Gate's room.

But while everyone else seemed enthralled by the view of the First Gate, with it's background of the vast city beyond the transparent wall hundreds of stories below, Carter was drawn at once to a vast control panel. Crystalline plates for buttons, like keys on a piano, spread out below unlit holographic projectors.

And all dead.

At once, without anyone noticing, she sat down at the center seat and looked for the Ancient symbol that would power up the system. She couldn't find one. So she started pressing keys.

Nothing happened.

Drawn by the clicking sound of fingers on keys, everyone else turned and looked at the Colonel, frowning. She looked up at them, sheepishly, and bit her lower lip.

"Uhm, sorry." She apologized and started to push back from the chair. "I just wanted to see what it all did."

Bestla laughed, a musical sound that was delightful in it's strange alien way. "it is okay, Colonel Samantha Carter." The Vanir assured her. "Though I am surprised the control panel did not light up for you. You said you were a child of the Ancient."

Daniel smacked his forehead and walked over to Sam. "We are." He said as he took a seat beside Carter. "But the genepool has thinned out so much that the actual gene that separates us from our Ancient ancestors is quite rare. Only one in Sixteen people seem to have it." He pressed a hand against the panel and..

Nothing happened. Again.

Jack rolled his eyes and took the third seat, on the opposite side of Carter from Daniel. "Geeze. What would you ever do without me?" he asked as he touched the panel.

And all at once it lit up like a Christmas tree.

Bestla grinned and stood behind the three humans. "Well, you have proven you are who you say you are." She said happily, and almost relieved.

Daniel turned in his chair, looking confused. "What do you mean?" he asked slowly. "You weren't sure?"

Holding up her hand, Bestla bade Daniel to stop. "My heart told me yes, but I had to be sure. If none of you had been able to activate the master interface, I would have been forced to activate certain safeguard measures your ancestors installed."

Jack and Carter quickly turned in their seats, looking shocked at the admission. Only Teal'c smiled, nodding his respect."

"You were most wise, Mistress Bestla. It was sound judgment on your part and those of the ancients to ensure the safety of this place.

Grumbling, Jack turned back to his panel and squinted at the symbols. "Still coulda been more honest about it." He griped.

Sam smiled now and patted Jacks shoulder. "They had to be sure, General." She assured them, then looked at her console. "You know, these are much like the ones on Atlantis, but at the same time they seem.. less advanced." She said.

"Well, remember, the Atlantian Ancients had thousands upon thousands of years to advance beyond the Ancients and Vanir that were left behind." Daniel reminded her. He readjusted his glasses as he studied the control panel. "So we might not find the technology quite as advanced as some."

Jack snorted and gave up trying to decipher the key, crossing his arms against his chest. "Oh yeah. So their only a few thousand years more advanced then tens of thousands of years more. Oh no, whatever shall we do."

Bestla leaned in between Sam and jack and pressed a key. A Holographic screen lit up and many Ancient and Asguard symbols scrolled down the screen. "The Omegalium is still at full charge." She said, then stepped away and over to a side console. Her long fingers tapped the keys in a blur of sequences. "The Omegalium for the Shield is at three quarter's capacity and the one for the Hibernaculum is at a third capacity."

Jack smiled now. "Well that's good. So how many times can a ZPM power a gate? You know, for intergalactic trips?"

Bestla looked back and frowned. "I don't know." She said. "We never made an intergalactic jump, ourselves. We needed to get a Stargate to another galaxy to actually do it and while my people traveled from one, the Ancients never left this galaxy until they fled."

"Well, from my calculations of how much power a ZPM could hold and how much power we used to open a stable wormhole to Pegasus I would think you could get about a few dozen or more trip out of it before you used it up and had to replace it." Carter said as she pressed a few keys experimentally and the holographic display changed. "Not that we know how to make a new ZPM, or charge an old one."

Bestla looked at Carter. "There were Omegalium production facilities on Minerias." She said. "I don't know what you would call the planet now, mind you. It was the next one out from Aresia."

Jack blinked. "Wait, you guys had industry on Jupiter? The largest gas Giant in the solar system?" he asked. "You mean on one of it's moons, right? I just can't see Ancients in floating cities around a Gas giant."

Blinking, the Vanir woman regarded Jack curiously. "No, Mineria is between Aresia and Panthia, the sixth planet which is the Large Gas Giant. "

"Wait!" Daniel interceded. "There is no planet between Mars and Jupiter." He told her. "Only a… Oh. Oh my."

Jack winced. "An asteroid belt." He supplied. "Bestla, there are only 9 planets in our solar system."

Once again, Bestla looked stricken. "This cannot be." She said. "There were twelve planets."

Everyone gawked and Teal'c even raised his brow. "Mistress Bestla. They speak the truth. I have been living on their world for almost ten years now and I have studied their star maps. This solar system does indeed have nine planets."

Without thinking, The Vanir uploaded a stylized map of the solar system and it was very very different. She was right. There were twelve planets on it. "Which ones?" she asked, quickly. "Which ones are gone?"

Jack quickly stood and walked over to the map. Studying it for a moment he started pointing out the ones he was not familiar with.

"Well, there's this one inside the orbit of Mercury."

Bestla closed her eyes. "Hel."

"And this one, between Mars and Jupiter. You called it Mineriam right? Okay, well.. This one here beyond Pluto and Neptune…"

Bestla cringed and stepped back from the map. "Naquias." She whispered.

"But what happened to them?" Carter asked, looking uneasily at the map. For a person who had almost single handedly destroyed a sun, the thought of planets being destroyed seemed to disturb her more.

Bestla stepped back up to the console. "I don't know." She whispered. "Vul was a small planet which the Aesir Asguard mined for heavy minerals. Minerias was a cold world, much like Aresia, which we and the Ancients used for heavy industry. And Naquias… That is where the Ancients mined their Naquadah."

Daniel nodded quicky. "That makes sense." He says. "A lot of earlier Ancient Technology was Naquadah based. They had to discover it initially somehow and we have never found any on earth. I guess it could have been completely mined until it was gone but perhaps the Ancients discovered it on their first forays into the solar system."

"Yeah yeah, Daniel. A good theory and all but I'm more interested in how three planets disappeared. We have the asteroid belt to say one of them were destroyed. What of the other two?" Jack asked.

"Well, Hel's debris could have been pulled into the sun." Carter said.

"Okay, I'll buy that." Jack said.

"Indeed, Colonel Carter, that is most likely what occurred." Teal'c added.

"As for Naquias," Carter mused, "Anything that would have destroyed a regular planet would most likely have caused a chain reaction that vapourized a world heavy in Naquadah."

Bestla shakily sat down, needing something to support her. "Minerias and Naquias.. they both had small splinter outposts with other Asguard of various types." She whispered. "Almost ten thousand apiece. Now they are gone. Who would do this."

Jack walked over and gently placed a hand on the Vanir's shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly. "I don't know. Maybe it was the Phage in their final assault. Maybe it was something else entirely. All I know is I am sorry for the loss of so many of your people. And with all you have kept for us I will make damned sure that they didn't make their sacrifice in vein."

Everyone else nodded in agreement and Bestla looked up at Jack, smiling faintly though her tears stained her pale grey-white cheeks.

"Thank you. Once again, Thank you. You are as noble as your ancestors."

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Walter leaned back in his chair with his fingers interlaced behind his white balding head. The Sergeant sighed happily as he looked at the cup of coffee and the last chocolate donut from the Mess hall which sat on a plate on his console. 

Yes sir, it was a nice quiet day for him. With the General and SG-1 gone he didn't need to constantly remind O'Neill to sign papers or try and organize his schedule, which the general always seemed able to screw up or forget. He swore O'Neill did it on purpose. He didn't have to call for fire fighting units to put out one of the bi-weekly fires that Colonel Carter seemed to start in her lab. He didn't have to order yet another fascinatingly boring history or archeology book (or entire library) for Daniel Jackson.

But best of all he didn't have to fight Teal'c for the donuts.

Yep, being a Sergeant for a super secret military installation had it's benefits when it's CO and Flagship team weren't about. He already had a nice poker game set up for tonight with Siler, Davis and Ferreti in utility closet 3a and just maybe he'd ask that nice Civilian scientist from upstairs out. The one with the freckles, red hair, and legs up to here.

Thinking happy pleasant thoughts about full houses, copious amounts of money earned through illegal gambling in a us military base, and fantasies of whether said redhead scientist wore a bra or not over her impressive bosom, Walter pickes up his coffee and donut in each hand and was about to take a bite.

Then the Stargate stared to turn.

Alarms blared as Walter, without thinking, placed his hand against the the panel that recognized his DNA and close the iris. Unfortunately, he hadn't let go of his donut so while there was enough contact fro his fingertips to get the proper scan, the entire palm area became a nice gooey mess of dough and chocolate.

"Sonuva.." Walter almost cried as he beloved donut was smooshed against the sensitive piece of security technology. But ten years of ingrained training made him forget it for at least a moment as he grabbed the microphone and yelled our his trademark phrase.

"We have an unscheduled offworld activation."

The Gate spun quickly as airmen ran into the gateroom, guns raised at the iris. Techs scurried into the control room and sat as the gate's chevrons began lighting up one right after another in the quick sequence of an incoming wormhole. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven…

Eight?

And then before Walter could say anything..

Nine.

NINE!

If his donut had been in one piece and then subsequently in his mouth, Walter Harriman would have choked on it as the wormhole engaged. Never in his almost ten years had he encountered a nine chevron wormhole.

The reflection of the event horizon of the iris lit up the wall behind the gate.

Walter just slumped into his chair. He looked down at the console and saw an incoming transmission.

SG-1's GDO code.

Crap. Of course it was SG-1. Who else would do something impossible?

"Hey, Walter!" an infuriatingly familiar voice called over a radio transmission. "Open the door, will ya?"

Sighing, Walter flipped on the transmitter and spoke into his microphone. "Yes, General. Opening the Iris now. Everyone else stand down."

He placed his hand against an un-doughnuty section of the DNA-reader panel and the iris opened. Then he turned to the nearest non-com he could find.

"Get me some paper towel. And if you see a donut in the infirmary please grab it for me. Just make sure Teal'c doesn't see you.


	10. Chapter 10

_**Author's Note:** Sorry for the lapse in updates, work got busy and I have been bone tire. But I have a few days off now and will try to keep up the updates as well as I can. Keep reading, review and I'll keep writing!. urk scuffle my spleen! Gee thanks, **Evilclone** for beating me senseless. I promise to never say that again. The boring part I mean _;)_ Heehee. He beta'd this and more are always welcome to try since I'm just a guy who makes this stuff up and tends not to see anything wrong. Because I am the best.. uhm.. yeah.. right.. hides. You guys have all been so cool to me. sniffle So anyways I am now taking applications for (more) beta's if anyone is interested,. Apply within and bring Cake. Lots and lots of cake. Coffee Cake, if possible. With sprinkles. Mocha sprinkles._

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**Chapter 10**

In the SGC's primary briefing room overlooking the Stargate, SG-1 and the Asgardian Vanir woman Bestla sat at the large conference table. Neither Generals O'Neill nor Hammond had arrived yet for the debriefing, both having been locked in Jack's office since Hammond beamed down from the Prometheus hours earlier.

Teal'c was his usual stoic self, sitting quietly on one side of the table while Carter sat across from him with her laptop, typing away at something and biting her lower lip as she did so.

Daniel sat beside Bestla at the end of the table, trying quietly to assess the Vanir's state of mind. Since they had arrived, the alien woman had silently looked at everything in some sense of awe and wonder, which surprised him since the Ancients she knew were much more advanced.

Wondering what was going on in the alien woman's mind, Daniel was about to ask her when the door to Jacks office opened and both him and Hammond walked in.

All at once Daniel, Carter, and Teal'c stood up. Bestla, confused rose after a few moments in an attempt to emulate the others. When Both Hammond and Jack sat down, the younger general motioned the others to do so as well. The wave of the humans sitting up and down so quickly made Bestla look even more confused as she sank into her seat and mumbles something about "Curious customs."

Ignoring the remark, Jack launched right into the debriefing. "Well, Kids." He said, "It seems Daniel's little treasure hunt has created a lot more questions then answers. Lost cities in space, a buried city on Mars. A quarter million Asgard ancestors in deep sleep, three destroyed planets, and the first Stargate of them all."

"You aren't surprised?" Daniel asked him.

"You'd think." He responded. "But no. Intrigued to hell yes, surprised or overly excited, not really."

Hammond just shook his head, smiling slightly. Usually he would keep such chattering to a minimum with his subordinates but in this case, he made an exception. He truly missed his people and their unique way of seeing things.

Still, a meeting was a meeting. The head of Homeworld Security cleared his throat though he kept smiling. Everyone fell silent quickly and looked to him, even the alien female.

"General O'Neill and I just got off the phone with the president," he told the others, "We gave him a verbal accounting of most everything Miss Bestla told you. Since he doesn't have quite the experience you do with all things Galactic he was very excited by all this, and also cautious." He turned to look at Bestla. "Ma'am, his primary concern was you."

Bestla frowned and sat a bit straighter, her long fingers interlacing and fidgeting on the table before her. "Me?" she asked, "I haven't done anything to prove I am a threat to you. I have freely offered your world access to our city, its technology, and the master gate since it is rightfully yours as a species."

Carter quickly cut in. "I think the President's main concern is the fact you are so forthcoming." She told the Vanir, looking at Hammond for confirmation. The older man nodded so she continued. "The two kinds of aliens we most encounter, who are technologically superior to us, tend to either not share anything easily or at all for fear we are two young and will kill ourselves…"

"The Nox, the Tollan, the Tok'ra. Even the Asgard though I love them to pieces." Jack said.

Carter grimaced. "And the second kind are those who willingly give it to us, but with ulterior motives. like our subjugation"

"Like the Aschen." Jack threw in.

Daniel sighed. "I think the point we're trying to make, Bestla, is we have had troubles in the past and have slowly begun to learn that while we want and even need technology, we may just not be ready for it. Or at least be ready for what the holder's of the technology have in mind for us."

Bestla nodded at this, understanding what they were trying to say. "Your people are currently not as advanced as your ancestors were. In a way, you have become young again. Having to learn about the universe, by yourselves from the beginning. You have tried to speed this process up and have been hurt by it as many times as you have learned and now you are wary."

Jack snapped his fingers. "Exactly." He said, pleased at her reasoning. "Look, I like hi-tech gizmo's as much as everyone else... But we have learned there is always a price."

The Vanir female thought about this a moment, carefully considering her options. "I understand, General O'Neill, but you must understand this. My people stayed behind on the offhanded chance that one day we could help rebuild the Ancients civilization if they survived returned to this Galaxy. They never returned to wake us. You did, and you are the children of those who survived and that is enough to fulfil the requirement. If you are worried about learning to fast, perhaps I can make a proposal."

Everyone looked at her, interested in what she had to say. Hammond himself nodded to her. "Please go on." He asked her.

"Our city on Aresia is a large one, General Hammond. We lived there side by side with Ancients and other species that came time to time. It is our only home now and many may not wish to leave. I ask if we can keep the city as ours while at the same time you may use it as a base of some form for your people."

Hammond pursed his lips. "We had thought about that." He admitted, and motioned to Jack once. "It is your city and you know its ins and outs. But at the same time you must be made aware that Mars, Aresia I mean, is a target of our varying nations space exploration plans in this century. The vast majority of the planet does not know aliens exist yet and with the constant barrage of probes to the planet…" he trailed off.

"With the shield, we can keep ourselves hidden much as you hide your base here on Earth," she told Hammond. "Better even, and we have other ways of making sure ground based exploration cannot find us. You had a direct map to us remember others do not. Do you expect your fellow humans to land on Mars anytime soon?"

"In twenty years." Jack grumbled.

Hammond smiled faintly. "Yes, not for a while yet... And you can assure these claims, Miss Bestla?"

"When you wish, you can send a team of your military scientists to examine our measures and see if they meet the requirements."

Looking placated, Hammond leaned back in his chair and nodded. "We'll do that. I believe you, ma'am, but we just have to be sure. Your city and the Master Gate are a big find for us and we wish to make sure it is protected at costs."

"We gave our future lives to protecting both gate and city. General Hammond, for your people, we will continue to do so. It is our duty."

Jack clapped his hands together, rubbing them quickly in a pleased gesture. "Well alrighty. Now that that is settled, we can move along to the next piece of business," he said, "We're not too worried about the Phage since we have never run across anything about them in any of our travels. It seems your ploy worked and they died out. As for the missing planets, well, we have no clues to that either. But if they were destroyed by the phage the point is moot as well. So I guess that comes down to the lost Cities and what we do about them."

Daniel frowned. "Well, obviously, we want to go find them," he said slowly. Jack didn't say anything. "We /are/ going to go find them, right Jack?"

"Well…"

Daniel rolled his eyes and threw up his hands. "I can't believe this. We have to go to them! Think of all we could learn."

Clearing his throat, Hammond turned on Daniel with a neutral glare. "Doctor Jackson. The president and the Joint Chief's of staff are very cautious about sending another expedition to extra-galactic city. We lost contact with Atlantis for over a year, over a hundred people. Moreover, it was sheer luck we made contact with them again. Yes, we may have the means to travel to them now via this Master Gate, but the fact remains that it is a serious costly and hazardous undertaking to send a large expedition at this time. Especially when we have an Ancient city, albeit one inhabited by the Vanir, in our own backyard."

Before Daniel could argue Jack cut in. "Relax Danny boy." He told his younger friend. "General Hammond said a 'large expedition'. We believe we came up with a viable option."

Carter perked up now. "Like what?"

The older general straightened up into a more official bearing. "The President has authorized us to set up a secondary SGC on Mars in the Vanir's city. From there we will set up new SG teams to explore from the Master gate, within and without the galaxy as intelligence permits." He said, and then nodded at Bestla. "We anticipated you might not want to all leave. If the city's stealth system can be affirmed, The President believes he can get the rest of Earth's allies to sign onto letting you stay there on a few conditions such as letting us reside there. The base would have to be multinational, of course, to make our allies agree with this but with the success we have heard about from Atlantis's multi-national mission we believe this won't be a hindrance."

"And what other conditions are there.

Jack sighed. "Well, the rest are small and can be dealt with as we from our plans. However, the major one of them is, is that you can't tell anyone that your city is on Mars. By that I mean other aliens."

"I am afraid I don't understand."

"It's like this Bestla. While we need to hide the city from our general populous until our real role in galactic affairs is made public, we also need to keep the city secret from people outside our solar system. We don't need every Tom dick and Harry knowing we have a city full of Ancient technology next door. It might make some of the neighbours jealous."

Before Bestla could ask what a Tom, Dick and Harry was, Daniel couched to get her attention.

"I think what Jack is trying to say, so eloquently, Is that if other species know where your city is they will start coming to visit, friendly or not. The more aliens that come to our solar system, the better chance there is that an enemy or our own people may accidentally discover your existence or that of the other aliens and their technology. And we aren't prepared for that just yet."

"I understand and we will comply with these conditions." Bestla told him.

Jack grinned mischievously. "Excellent. Okay, so we have the preliminaries out of the way. Before we wrap this up and go get a bite to eat I believe it's time we gave a present to our lovely guest."

Bestla raised a hairless brow, looking a bit surprised. "A present?" she asked, obviously intrigued.

"Yep," Jack said, looking at his watch. He squinted at the display and started counting down. "Five… Four… Three… Two…"

A flash of light drowned out the room for a moment, washing everything out in an even white. When it faded nothing seemed changed.

Except for the silver command chair of a very familiar alien facing the Generals, Commander Thor, of the Asgard Fleet, sat with the monstrous chair. His small thin body completely protected in the chair's embrace, skin glimmering faintly, the modern Asgard nodded its head to Jack in friendly respect.

""Hey Thor! Buddy! Pal 'o' Mine!" Jack called out, smiling his happiest and his voice filled with camaraderie. "What brings you to our neck of the woods?"

"You do, O'Neill. You contacted us remember? Are you not well?"

"Nah, I'm just pulling your leg. Well. Not _really_ pulling your leg… Forget it. Yeah, I called you. We have someone we want you to meet." And he motioned behind Thor to the table.

As the chair turned, Bestla had to gasp. She couldn't help it. What she saw both made her curious and very worried. The Asgard sitting in that massive chair was so small. So very small, she couldn't believe that only fifty thousand years of evolution, both natural and planned had caused so much change. The Asgard of today weren't the tall, sleek and proud race she knew but…

They looked like Children.

But if Bestla was surprised, Thor then seemed to be in a state of shock. Not even when he had been in the hands of Anubis had he shown so much emotion in his usually unreadable face. His already large eyes went as wide as saucers as he looked at her.

Jack looked at his small friend, worried as he had never seen Thor react like this. "Thor… Buddy… Are you alright?" he asked.

And Thor could just say one single word in reply. A question, really.

"Mother?"


	11. Chapter 11

**_Author's Note_: **_Well Chapter 11 is here folks. My first story that has been beta'd before being posted (Thanks, Evilclone. You get the chocolaty donuts. I'll keep Teal'c off your back) Thanks for the great reviews and criticisms. Now that I have a beta (hopefully two soon), the stories may be coming out every third day. Hopefully second. So sit back, relax, and enjoy them as they come. We ain't done yet. Not by a long shot._

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**Chapter 11**

The room was deathly quiet.

No one said a word.

The tension was so thick it could be cut with a knife.

Then Jack coughed.

"So, um… Your mother?" he asked Thor, making a faint that-means-her motion with his hands. He coughed again, uncomfortable, then looked between the two. "I see the resemblance… I think."

Daniel pulled off his glasses, setting them on the table, and massaged the bridge of his nose to work the migraine that was forming out of his head. "Oh boy." He intoned, and then slipped the glasses back on and stared at the two lastly different members of the same species. "Uhm, I think Thor means 'Mother' in some other… uhm… more historical sense." He offered the group. "Dammit, I should have realized…"

Jack, Hammond, Carter and even Teal'c all looked at the young archeologist quizzically.

"Ancient Norse mythology." Daniel said, going into lets-skim-over-millenia-of-history-in-20-seconds-or-less mode. "In Viking legend Bestla was the Daughter of a powerful Ice giant. She wed another giant, Bor, and they gave birth to the first Norse Gods. Like the Titans of Greek..."

Jack scowled and held up a hand. "Daniel!" he said, irritated, "As much as we admire your vast knowledge time to time... "Why didn't you tell us this before?"

Blushing, Daniel looked down at his hands. "It slipped my mind. I'm so used to talking about gods and goddesses I sometimes don't think about who created them."

Thor suddenly stood up from his chair, surprising everyone. He stepped down onto the floor, still staring at Bestla as if he had been pole axed. "She is not my mother as you would think, Daniel Jackson, in the traditional human sense." He said. Then he walked towards the Vanir woman, looking way up into her still shocked eyes.

And he knelt before her.

"I kneel to you Bestla, daughter of Bolthorn and Mother of the Asgard race. We never thought…" His voice caught in his throat as he tried to find the words and something silvery rolled down his cheek.

A tear.

At once Bestla's shocked and maybe even slightly fearful expression softened. She gently knelt down in front of the small Asgard and then helped him stand. "No." she whispered. "Do not kneel. I am not your superior but your family. You are the son of the line of Odin?" she asked.

The Asgard stood, wiping his cheek with his hand and nodded. "The line of Odin was the gene-sire of my Genetic-line, yes." He told her. "But your genetic-template, the genetic template of the Vanir of which you are the most renowned, is the one that binds us all. "

Bestla looked intrigued by this. "Gene-sire. You are cloned then?" she asked.

"All Asgard are clones, Mother Bestla." He told her. "We lost the ability to procreate naturally many millennia ago while we were trying to engineer ourselves to be able to contain the vast Knowledge the Ancients left behind and to live as long as possible. With no new genetics to infuse into our lines we have been cycling the remaining Asgard, cloning our bodies to transfer our minds into the old when one is damaged or too old to sustain us."

Carter quickly leaned over the table. "Which is the problem we were trying to help them with." She added.

Closing her eyes, Bestla lowered her head and worried on her lower lip. "So like the Humans have, the Asgard forgot as well." She whispered.

Hammond straightened a bit in his chair, looking confused by all this. He had been away for two long and felt as if he were just catching up. "What did the Asgard forget?" He asked.

"The truth." She told him, and everyone else standing there. "We used genetic engineering to ensure that the New Asgard would survive and thrive. That they would carry our knowledge and the knowledge of the Ancients to their new home and start again."

"But that is what we did, Mother Bestla. Our ancestors, before the clonings, were trying to build off that work. So we could contain the vast amounts of knowledge. We never fully succeeded. So much has been lost. But we still…"

"You still don't _understand"_ Bestla hissed. "No one being can hold all that Knowledge. Do you think the Ancients could? Do you really think any living mind could fully comprehend and understand every Iota of Knowledge they had collected?" She asked, almost angry. "Why do you think they created the Great Library. It was the collected knowledge of the Ancients, the Nox, the Furlings and us, the Asgard."

Daniel slowly raised his hand, as if some reluctant student. "Uhm, Jack has carried all the knowledge." He told them.

"Twice even." Jack remarked, a bit smugly.

Bestla gave the pair a queer look. "And he didn't go insane?" she asked.

Daniel shifted a bit, uncomfortably. Jack just coughed once again, looking embarrassed.

"Touché."

Shaking her head, Bestla lowered herself into her seat and sighed. "No Ancient could hold all this knowledge in a single brain. It was tried but every single one went insane. We could not remove the knowledge. How you survived…"

Jack smiled. "I'm special."

"And _we do_ possess the technology to remove it." Thor said humbly.

Bestla lowered her head and inhaled deeply, as if trying to find her center. "Still, it was never meant to be. There is no such thing as omnipotence." She finally looked up at Thor and tried smiling. "You're hearts were in the right place. Just not your common sense."

"And, unintentionally, we may have signed the death warrant of our entire race, Mother Bestla. I am sorry we have failed in your original intentions for us." The Asgard said, sadly and with much shame.

Her face softening once more, the Vanir woman looked like she herself was about to cry. She reached out and gently took Thor in her arms, holding him closely much like a mother and her child. "Never think that, Thor. Never think that. Children make their own choices, and mistakes. Only when a parent knows can they try to help. And I am willing to help, all the Vanir will help. You are our link to this time and place. You are our family, we may not be as advanced as you are but let us try to help."

Thor remained silent for a moment, unused to such physical contact. But in moments his tenseness melted and his thing arms wrapped around her shoulders as he pressed his cheek to hers.

"Thank you." He whispered.

"Donut?" Daniel asked Teal'c as he looked through the assorted pastries an attendant had brought down from the mess hall. The archeologist oooh'd and quickly reached for the chocolate one with the rainbow sprinkles.

Teal'c, of course, was faster. He snatched the donut from the box and held onto it possessively like a lion held its prey. Daniel almost stepped back in fear.

"I believe I shall, DanielJackson." The large Jaffa said, his voice holding a hint of menace that seemed to say 'If you try to take my favorite donut again I shall hurt you in indescribable ways'

Carter watched her friends, slightly amused at their antics. Daniel should have known by now just how much Teal'c cherished donuts. It was like trying to take his Star Wars dvd collection away from him, not a healthy thought to entertain.

Jack and Hammond stood at the end of the conference room table, each with a cup of coffee. Every few minutes one or the other would look at the closed door to Jack's office, wondering what the two Asgard were talking about in private. They had entered over half an hour ago and had not as yet exited.

"So what do ya think they're talking about?" Jack asked his superior officer, sipping his coffee, and then grimacing when he realized it was almost cold. He set the cup down and smacked his lips with dissatisfaction.

"I don't know, Jack." The stocky older general said, using his subordinate's first name as he more often did as of late. "But I'm sure we'll find out soon enough. Look, before they come out there is something I needed to ask you."

Jack raised his brows. "And that would be, sir?"

Making sure the three members of Sg-1 couldn't hear them, he pulled jack father into the corner, a hand on his shoulder. "You do know that I was considering retiring at the end of the year, right?"

"You'd mentioned it." Jack remarked, trying to be casual about it. He never liked hearing this. He had known the General too long and respected him too much to want to see his best ally between him and the Pentagon leave. Besides, Hammond was almost like a Father to him. "I'd always put it off as that spiked coffee you three star generals drink speaking for you."

Hammond grinned and slapped Jacks back. "Not this time, son. Not this time. I'm not getting any younger. I want to spend more time with my grandchildren now that they are getting older and, well, there is a woman…"

"You sly dog!"

Rolling his eyes but never appearing less jovial, Hammond chuckled. "I may be older, but the heart is the heart. I want to get out of this uniform and become a regular human being, Jack. I'll miss taking the Prometheus out for jaunts, or yelling at you over the phone over another one of your harebrained plans…"

"For the record, sir, those harebrained plans are usually Carter's or Daniels."

"The point is, Jack, I will miss all of this terribly but it is time for me to move on. Oh, you'll see me from time to time. The president has assured me I will be retained as a civilian advisor, but my time behind a desk or in a command chair will be over soon. And I'd like you to replace me."

Jack frowned. "I already replaced you. "See?" He tapped his stars.

"No, Jack. I mean replace me as head of Homeworld Security."

The Brigadier General swallowed hard, looking straight into Hammond's eyes. "General, I couldn't possibly replace you there. It was a jump for me to take over the SGC. You know how I am. I'm terrible with people. I'm irritating, infuriating. I have problems with authority. A chip on my shoulder the size of Goa'uld Mothership. I never get my reports done on time. I fall asleep during briefings. I'm not even all that smart..."

Hammond found this all amusing, but he was determined. "Jack, I wouldn't hand this off to any other person on the planet. Not only do you have more experience with the Stargate program then anyone on the face of the Earth, you are also not as much a pain in the ass or as stupid as you try to be. Remember, I do know about your Master's degree."

Sighing, Jack looked over at his friends who were gathered around the refreshments, chatting amiably as they too waited for the Asgard to return. He watched Carter as she laughed at something Daniel said, her entire face lighting up almost angelically and reaching a place deep within him, twisting it in a knot when he realized he would never be able to follow through on his feelings.

He looked at Daniel, the archeologist smirking mischievously as he sipped his coffee now. How much the young man had grown in the past decade. From a mousy insecure scientist who sneezed with the smallest change in the barometric pressure into the confidant and strong and almost socially adept man he was today. Dying, coming back to life, dying again, returning over and over. And he never lost the passion for life. He was a friend and son to him. He even was getting Jacks strange sense of humor.

And Teal'c. Long gone was the stiff and sometimes bewildered Jaffa whom had saved their lives ten years ago from dying at the hands of Apophis's Serpent Guard. The man had given up everything for the Tau'ri. And all because of something he saw in a single human. In Jack, and in return Jack had taken the Jaffa under his wing and made him family and, ultimately, human. To look at Teal'c now, how he actually smiled and had a sense of humor and, well, hair...

Jack couldn't bare it. He turned away and closed his eyes. He felt Hammond's hand squeeze his shoulder supportively.

"Now you know how I felt, Jack, when I was promoted..." He said softly, in his fatherly tone. "I feel like you do every day. I expect you or Carter or Daniel to walk through my door almost hourly and set the world on it's ear. You don't, though. It's just the fanciful wish of an old man. But I didn't lose you when I left, Jack. I didn't lose any of you. You were always with me, and I with you. In spirit. And you will be with them, as well. Do the right thing, not what spares you a moments pain. They will always be your friends. Always."

Sighing, Jack opened his eyes and straightened. "I'll think about it." He promised his old friend. "We have some time still. I just… I just need to think about."

Hammond nodded and squeezed Jack's shoulder one more time, just as the door to the office opened. Both Vanir and Asgard exited, their differences in height and stature almost amusing, like a Laurel and Hardy skit. Or maybe Abbot and Costello. The trio of SG-1 turned and quickly returned their seats, as did the two Generals, as the two aliens sat side by side and regarded their human friends.

"So, kids, what'd ya talk about?" jack asked, obviously full of curiosity. "Hey, Thor didn't talk you out of giving us complete access to your city because we weren't 'ready' did he? Cause while I love him to pieces, he has a tendency to do that."

"No, O'Neill, rest assured that Mother Bestla fought most passionately with me, and the Asgard Council over subspace, for your complete access to the hallowed city of Vanaheim." Thor assured him. Jack visibly relaxed at this. "The Knowledge contained in the great library beneath the city is more easily accessible then when it was within you, O'Neill, and this a lot safer to study. But with it's easier access we have noted that you will be very overcome by the sheer amount of data it contains and thus this will hinder your overall learning curve to safe pace we all find acceptable."

Carter scowled at this, as did Daniel. They both were hoping for a quick infusion of knowledge they could dissect. Teal'c didn't seem too bothered though, just nodding in understanding.

Thor continued. "Knowledge is only useful when there is context and reference to apply it against. It will take you time to acquire this context. Thus your learning and advancement, while faster then naturally occurring methods, will be sufficiently limited so that you will hopefully not destroy yourselves. We, of course, will be offering our services to aid you, though we will not answer all your questions of reference if we believe it will let you make too large of a step. This will be a long endeavor between our two peoples, but one I hope Is satisfactory."

"Well, it's better then not giving us any access." Daniel admitted. "Besides, Thor's right. We couldn't possibly be able to actually learn everything of the ancients overnight. So this is like a sort of a… a."

Carter nodded reluctantly. "A safety valve?"

"Exactly."

Hammond looked pleased with this. They had full access now to Ancient technology, but they had to take it apart and learn each step themselves. It truly was a better offer then they usually had. In addition, it let them learn to understand everything, not just use it without knowing.

"I believe the president and the rest of our Earth Allies will find this satisfactory." Hammond said, not adding that the allies would probably agree only after someone had knocked their collective heads together. "And of course we will be willing to share any and all technology and knowledge we gather with the Asgard in return."

Nodding, Thor motioned to Bestla. "Mother Bestla also informed me of the great number of Vanir in stasis. There are plans our government must make with yours, General Hammond, before we can revive them. Mother Bestla told me of you're offer to thee remaining residents of the city, and letting you co-habituate with them there as a secondary base, and we will honor that wish. We will however, wish to visit the city and help in their waking and re-integration with our time. In return, Mother Bestla assures me she and her people will provide many genetic samples and input into the re-engineering of our race to overcome our current difficulties."

Jacked grinned broadly and leaned back in his chair, intertwining his fingers behind his head. "Sounds like everyone is coming out a winner tonight." He boasted.

Daniel coughed and held up his hand. "Excuse me, what about the seven cities? I believe General Hammond told us that this base would be used to also look into their status."

"Uhm, your point Daniel?"

"Well, I just want to know how long this will take. Setting up a support base, I mean. I don't want to wait years and years to find out."

Hammond shrugged. "Well it won't be tomorrow, son." He told him. "It took us a minimum of eight months to fully set up the Antarctic research base. But considering the city is built on Mars already, we may be able to cut down that time. Especially with the Vanir's help. After that, politics will decide."

Daniel grumbled and crossed his arms against his chest. Everyone smiled, even Bestla. It was hard to tell if Thor was, but Jack pretended in his mind that the little Asgard was beaming.

Hammond finally stood and nodded his head. "Well, people, this is just preliminary talks. We have a long way to go. But I feel confident that we have taken the first step in a great endeavor towards the future."

And no one could disagree.


	12. Chapter 12

_**Author's Note:** Okay, this chapter may seem a little.. different then the others. Trust me, it'll all fit in. As for some of the weird spellings this time around, well, I'm playing with accents. I didn't have this one beta'd because I wanted to get it out before the weekend cause I may be away until Monday. Sorry, Evilclone L. Next one for sure._

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**Chapter 12**

_**4 Months Later**_

**_The Isle of Man, Irish Sea between England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales_**

The little rowboat floated serenely in an oddly calm sea; almost no rocking at all as there was not but the very least of waves about. A low fog spread across the area, cutting off sight of shore which was less then a mile away and the sun above was hidden by dark, yet no ominous, clouds that promised a shower or mist sometime soon.

The boats lone occupant sat on the center bench, an oar clutched in each massive hand. An oilskin jacket which was once a dark grey or even black but worn down to the color of sealskin through years of wear cut the cold down from intolerable to almost, yet not quite, bearable. Luckily a thermos of hot tea, laced with some good old whisky, kept the worse of the early morning chill from the rower's bones.

Growing closer to shore, almost enough to see faint shadows of the pier, the man in the dark coat let go of the oars and let the small vessel coat a bit while he poured himself another mug of his warmth giving drink. Sipping it, he took a moment to reflect.

The last six years had been quiet and boring, but he had enjoyed ever single moment of them. The quiet and remoteness of the Isle of Man had proven a salve to his otherwise battered and abused soul and body. The people, while friendly to almost a fault, also respected his space and privacy. He had made a few good friends, no enemies, and enjoyed fishing in his tiny boat out in the bay.

Yes, life was good and boring. More then he could have ever asked for, really, considering he never thought he'd love long enough to actually retire, much less to such a nice place as this.

So it came as a surprise, and a bit of an annoyance, as he finally rowed up to the small pier beside his cabin and saw a man in a black business suit standing there, waiting for him.

In his head, warning flags came up. The stranger stood on the small dock, hands at his sides, and just looked at the small boat as it got closer and closer. Kincaid rowed a few more times, hard as he could, to gain enough speed so he could coast to the side of the pier. Then he dropped his hands and looked up at the man now above him, fingers slowly curling around the grip of his 9mm he had taped below the bench.

"Can I 'elp ye, sir?" He asked, not yet moving. Waiting

The man looked down at him a moment, and reached into the black suit jacket…

In an instant, the man in the boat stood, tearing the gun from it's hiding place and bringing it to bear right between the man's eyes. The stranger blinked and froze, not at all prepared for this it seemed.

The man in the boat wasn't your every day average person. He was a giant. Standing in the boat that was lower then the short pier, he almost came eye to eye with the stranger. He had to be over seven feet if he was an inch. The 9mm looked ridiculously tiny on his gargantuan hand yet just as deadly as the look of intent in the giants eyes.

Mismatched eyes. One a cold cerulean blue and the other a warm brownish-amber with little golden flecks.

"Now, lad," the giant warned him in a voice so deep that it was like being drown in molten honey. And the accent was very recognizable as being Scottish with maybe a hint of British cockney to it. "I would ask ye ta be very very careful at this moment. Open yuir coat slowly."

Not saying a word, the stranger pulled open his jacket to reveal a wallet of some sort. No holster or knife but an official looking government issue wallet. The giant motioned towards it and the stranger slowly withdrew it from the inner breast pocket and slid it into the giant's free hand.

Flipping it open, the gun-toting man quickly looked at the identicard in it and then let out a long sigh. He lowered the weapon and held the wallet up so the stranger could take it back.

"MI-5?" he asked, irritated more then concerned.

The stranger nodded as he slipped the wallet back into his jacket. "Yes sir." He said, his voice very refined and undeniably London British. "My name is Commander Horace Walts, Colonel, and we need to talk.

Lieutenant Colonel Ezekiel 'Zeke' Kincaid of her Majesties Special Air Services, retired, let out a long sigh and stuffed the gun into the belt of his pants. He eyed the Intelligence agent with a mixture of disgust and curiosity before he spoke.

"Well then, best ye come in." he said as he climbed onto the pier and started for his small wooden cabin on the shore, "I'll fix us a nice toddy ta keep out tha chill. After that I'll give ye 5 minutes ta say something intrestin befuir I send ye packin."

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It only took three.

Zeke say in his beat up leather recliner in front of the old iron potbelly stove. In his hands sat a nice mug of warmed brandy with lemon and honey added to it. Across from him in a rather less comfortable fold out chair sat Walts, holding a similar cup though minus the Brandy.

At the moment, however, Zeke wished he had the whole bottle in his hands. Walts had, in three whole minutes, turned his world upside down and sideways. Staring at the younger intel agent, he sank into his recliner and sighed.

"Aliens?" he asked, lowly. "Ye expect me ta believe this shit?"

Walt sipped his virgin toddy and regarded the slightly grizzled ex-SAS officer. The man was a complete enigma to him. He couldn't understand why his superiors wanted this gigantic brute for this project, but then again it wasn't his concern. He was just here to carry out his orders.

"Colonel…"

"I'm retired, lad. Whut part uv that ye not understand. Re and Tired. Two perfectly easy words. English words even. Yuir English right? Should be a snap "

"I understand full well what retired means, Colonel." Walts said, with emphasis on the rank, "But there was a clause in your record and my superiors have seen fit to use it to reactivate you. So you are once again a Colonel. A /full/ Colonel, I may add."

Zeke grimaced and sack even more into he beloved chair. "I am bein reactivated, and promoted, 'cause of aliens...?" He half stated, half asked, with full incredulity.

"In a manner of speaking, yes."

Making a rude sound with his lips Zeke shifted in his seat, his mind racing. He wanted to call this boy nuts. Insane, even. But he was MI-5. Military Intelligence. He'd worked with them before as part of a special joint operations taskforce between them and his personal team of SAS soldiers.

They had never lied then.

Closing his mismatched eyes, the giant shook his head in disbelief. "I'm finding this all a bit 'ard ta believe. You're telling me that tha Yanks been in contact with aliens fuir over a decade now? 'ow come I never 'eard" bout this." He asked.

Walts motioned to a thick file marked "Majestic" that sat on the coffee table. "That will answer all your questions., sir." He stated. "All I can say to your question right now is that you retired less then a year before our government was brought in on the secret by the Americans, thus lost your security rating. It is probably the highest ranking secret on the planet."

Picking up the thick file Zeke thumbed its edge, making a satisfactory fanning sound. He looked at the cover, then at the agent finally as he opened it.

"Fine, lets take a look see.

* * *

Three hours later

Zeke dropped the folder back on the coffee table, his mismatched eyes bloodshot from reading so long in the dim light. He rubbed at them with the balls of his hands, making a groaning sound that reverberated through the small cabin.

For the past few hours, Walts had been walking around the small building, looking at medals pinned on walls or at the gun collection in a cabinet. He had even studied the large number of strange books in the large shelving unit off to one side.

But most of all he had been studying the giant SAS officer. Over the course of three hours his demeanor had been a steadily chamging plethora of emotions. From Disbeleif to Anger to Fright to a few laughs and finally ending with something that looked like awe.

Finally dropping his hands into his lap, Zeke turned to look the MI-5 agent right in the eyes. It was if he were dissecting the man, analyzing him, then putting him back together.

"So.." Zeke drawled. "That's it, huh?"

Walts nodded. "Yes, sir."

Tapping his chin, Zeke stared at the glowing grate of the stove, watching the flames flickering as if in some dangerously seductive dance.

"Sounds dangerous."

"Yes sir."

"'ell, I could accidentally start an interstellar war if I' not careful."

"That's been considered, sir."

Sighing, Zeke lowered his eyes. "Fine then. I'll do it. I'll be yuir damned military representative fuir this.. Stargate project thing."

Walts was relieved but he didn't let it show. If he had been turned down he would have had to have arranged an accident for the Colonel. Maybe drowning or dying in bed during a fire. And the frightening part was while he would have tried he wasn't sure he would have succeeded.

Now he would never have to find out.

"How long before you would be ready to leave, Colonel?" he asked as he took the file. He walked over to the stove, opened the door, and tossed the papers in.

Zeke watched as the report started smoking, then burst into flame and was slowly consumed by his fire. "Three days." He said, finally standing and turning away. "Gotta tie up me life 'ere. Shouldn't take too long. Ye can pick me up on Monday."

Sure that the report was gone, Walts closed the stove door and nodded. "That's acceptable." He said as he wipes his hands of smoot on his pantlegs. "I'll leave you be, sir, to make your arrangements." And with that he headed for the door and was almost out.

Almost.

"Lad!" Zeke called out, "One thing before ye go."

Walts stopped and looked over his shoulder. "Yes sir?" he asked.

The Giant smiled. And it wasn't a nice smile either. It was a dangerous one, as if he were some predatory cat on the prowl. "Ye wouldn't 'ave been able ta take me down, lad. Just thought I'd let ye know."

Still for a moment, Walt finally nodded and without a word walked outside and closed the door behind him.

And began shaking.


	13. Chapter 13

_**Author's Note:** Well, took a few days. Between holiday and work and not feeling well (food allergy or too much sun) I have been slow to write and read. sigh I hope I feel better soon.

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**Peanut Gallery:** LOL Teal'c and his Donuts giggles, now that was pretty mean, I think you should get Jack to do a massive birthday cake as an apology, it would add to the humor factor lol. Right one gripe, I've fixed the spelling mistakes, as far as I could see, but **B**ritish has a capital **B **get it, got it, good don't ferget or I'll slap ye! **- EvilClone**_

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**Chapter 13**

It was all about the cake.

Carter had her Blue Jello. Daniel had his Coffee. Teal'c had his donuts, and could keep them since Jack didn't feel it worth the injury to try and take one from him. Yes, all his friends had their little culinary quirks.

But for him, it was cake.

He was lucky; too, since this was the last slice they had in the mess hall. A big thick wedge of Black Forest cake, with it's layer upon layer of chocolate and chocolate and more chocolate. Sprinkled with chocolate.

It was a slice of cake fit for a General. And since he was a general it was fitting he had 'acquired' the last piece, much to the airman's, who was actually before him in line, chagrin. Jack could still remember the look of shear rage and murder in the young man's eyes.

Tough Luck. He was a General. Thus it was his cake. And he'd stick to it.

Now safely ensconced away in his offices with his beautiful cake, Jack picked up a fork and was about to take a bite when there was a knock at the door. Jack stared suspiciously at the cake a moment, then the door, then at the cake again before finally sighing.

"Come in!"

Daniel strolled into the office, frowning slightly. "Hey Jack, did you see Airman Weiss?" He asked. "I was in the mess hall and he was actually crying and mumbling something about someone stealing the last piece Black forest cake that the mess hall cook saved for his birthday."

Jack winced ever so reached for the cake to slide it into his open desk drawer.

Daniel turned and was about to sit in his usual chair when he spotted the generals covert action. "Jack, is that what I think.."

Jack raised a finger. "Ah Ah Ah..." he warned, leaving the cake alone. "Not a word, Daniel, or else I'm taking away some of your rocks."

"Jack, we've been over this for ten years. They are _not_ rocks. They are artifacts. And I really think you should apologize to Airman Weiss…"

Griping, Jack picked up the fork. "Shut up Daniel. I won't have you guilting me over the last piece of cake on the Base. You want to guilt me over civilizations being wiped out, fine. You want to guilt me over not telling you I was pretending to retire and be an enemy operative /years/ ago, then fine. But I draw the line at cake, got it?" he asked, as he cut away a piece of the cake and slowly lifted it to his mouth.

Daniel's big eyes seemed even bigger and rather judgmental behind his glasses. Jack looked deep into them, then at the piece of cake that was looking so nice and inviting on the end of his fork.

Damn him.

Putting the fork down and the cake untouched by his lips, Jack pushed the plate to the far corner of his desk. "I sure as hell hope you came here to tell me something good, rather then deprive me of my cake, Daniel."

The Archeologist nodded, smiling that he had once again guilt tripped his older friend. "Actually I did. I have a report from Vanaheim."

"And?"

"Thor's people have, as of today revived a quarter of the Vanir from the Hibernaculums. That's over fifty thousand of them."

Jack rolled his eyes. "I didn't fail math, Daniel."

"Okay, sorry. Anyways, Thor thinks that with the additional help of the Vanir, the rest can be revived a lot faster. In probably three months as opposed to the last six."

"Well that's great. So we'll have a quarter million little grey people on mars by Christmas."

"They aren't all that little, Jack."

"True, that. So, what else? Carter says the Military base is almost done, thanks to the loan of unused buildings near the Master Gate's tower."

"Uhm yeah, about that… If the Mars base is going completely operational soon, then how long until we start sending probes to the Seven cities."

Jack leaned back in his chair and shrugged. "Well, all our officers are almost in place on Mars. And we can ship in any specialists we need pretty easily, either by gate or ship, so… How about next Thursday?"

"No no, Jack, that's too… Wait… Next Thursday?"

"I believe that is what I said."

"Great! I mean… I should get my people together. To be there when we send a MALP though. You sure this won't be a problem? I mean, sending probes out to the far reaches of the cosmos? I know we just got the supply line open to Atlantis now that we have the master gate, though it's only one way since their ZPM is being used to power the city shields and systems, which means they can't use it for the gate…"

Jack shook his head. "No, it's good. I know you've been bucking for a chance for months now. We can fit it into the schedule. So, get your people together and be ready to pour over any information we get next week. But remember, that is all we are doing, okay? Just looking. We're not sending anyone through with the chance they can't come back. Maybe after the Vanir are all woken so we can pull that ZPM and use it to power the other cities gates, starting with Atlantis."

"What if the other cities have ZPM's?"

"Daniel, ZPM's aren't left in the open for the MALPS to see. We'd have to send someone through to search."

Slapping his forehead, Daniel groaned. "Right, silly me." He grumped.

Before either of them could say anything else, Walter's head poked through the door. "General O'Neill, The new British military rep is here."

Jack blinked and then ooooh'd and nodded. "Send him in."

Walter disappeared and quickly the General started routing through his papers in a mild panic. Daniel raised a brow in a way that would have made Teal'c proud."

"Uhm, Jack… What's going on?"

Jack continued searching his papers quickly. "Apparently the Pentagon thought it would be a good Idea if we had allied representation on the Mars base. I told them no."

"But they are still sending one anyways?"

Jack sighed, giving up on finding whatever it was he was trying to find. "Well, yeah. Though I did make a compromise. I told them that the Brits could have a rep, even a team, if they were S.A.S."

Now Daniel looked intrigued. "Why only S.A.S."

"Because the S.A.S. is the template for modern special forces. We wouldn't have any modern special forces over here if we hadn't have been inspired by the S.A.S. during World War Two.

"That's it? That's the only reason."

"Well… That and because I know personally of what they are capable of, remember how I've never really spoken much about my time as a POW in Iraq?"

Daniel nodded."

"It was an S.A.S. officer who got me out. Lost almost his entire team too. They weren't there for me, but they were damned if they were going to leave me there. We trekked for 8 days until we got across the border into Kuwait. I should have died there, Daniel. I didn't. Three other men did."

"Wow, Jack. I… I didn't realize. So you feel you owe the S.A.S. something?"

Jack nodded. "Yes, to a point. Also there is no force on earth better trained at counter terrorism, stealth entry, intel recon and guerilla warfare. We could always use that."

The door to Jack's office swung open, held by Walter. "Sir, the British Military Liaison is here."

Quickly, both Jack and Daniel stood as Walter ushered in the officer. They gaped when they saw that the man in his British dress uniform had to stoop slightly to pass through into the office.

The man was a giant. Almost literally. And there was no way his uniform was standard issue. It had to have been custom made since Jack doubted they had 'freakishly tall' on the shelves.

The man moved with what could only have been described as predatory grace. Jack found it hard to believe someone so large could move like that. Of course, he would have to if he had made it into the SAS.

The officer walked up to Jacks desk, standing at attention while Daniel just stared in awe at him. Clearing his throat, the officer introduced himself in a voice that was so deep it could cause glass to reverberate.

"Colonel Ezekiel Kincaid, of 'er Majesties Special Air Services. Reportin fuir duty."

Jack just stood there, his awe having turned to what looked like abject shock. Both Daniel and Zeke stared at the General a moment as he seemed unable to speak.

"Sir, are ye okay?" the giant asked, concerned.

Jack swallowed hard, unable to believe what he was seeing as memories washed over him.

"You..." he whispered. "I never thought I'd see you again."

* * *

_Yeah, I know it was short. I need to write a grand epic chapter or something some day. Hope to have the next chapter up in a few days._

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	14. Chapter 14 An Interlude

_**Author's Note:**__ Sorry this has taken a while to get out and that it hasn't been beta'd.. I have been extremely busy as of late. You see… Unfortunately, once again, Pensacola is directly in the crosshairs of yet another Hurricane. Dennis's projected path is pretty much straight towards P-cola, on almost the exact same track as Ivan last year. So I have been working pretty much around the clock getting prepared at home, and helping friends and family, and also working long shifts at the local wally-world because everyone with money who worked there has left town for someplace safer and we had to cover for them and deal with panic stricken customers._

_I will sit out the hurricane right here in p-cola this time instead of evac-ing, since I have no cash. Depending on what happens I may not be gone at all, or else I could be gone for as long as two weeks since that is how long it took us to get power back from Ivan. That is, if my house isn't blown down. It wasn't last time but... shudder_

_So keep me in mind. Pray to whatever higher powers you believe that Dennis will either miss us, or at least do little damage. He hits Sunday._

_

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_

**Chapter 14 – An Interlude**

The fire burned low, the coals almost spent to nothing but useless char and ash. The shadows on the stone walls flickered as if in dance, illuminating ancient paintings one moment then silently smothering them with darkness the next. Swallowing them whole.

Huddled in her old and tattered blankets, the crone sat cross-legged and stared into the fire. While her flesh was wrinkled and tanned like leather and her teeth all but non-existent, her eyes were still sharp and clear. They looked intently into the flames, watching them flicker and flutter in the faint breeze from the cave's mouth.

Outside the winds howled fiercely like the _bahn'sjai _her father would spin tales about around the campfires of her youth. The ethereal creatures who had sent their ancestors into hiding with their heartrending song, stealing their very souls as if they were wisps of air to be breathed.

Of course, those were just fairy tales used to scare children. The _bahn'jai_ were, in reality, not as dangerous as the stories told. No, they were just a lost part of their distant past, a history lesson or fable used to a forgotten moral.

And that was what the old crone did. She told stories.

But her stories weren't about what had been so much as what could be. The fire spoke to her, gave her clarity, letting her see the possible futures laid out before her and anyone who came to ask.

But the ones to ask were becoming fewer and farther between. The old ways were more quickly disappearing now then they ever had in her one hundred and seven seasons. And with no one to come and ask for a story, there would be no one for her to find and pass on the calling to.

She could very well be the last of her kind.

No one believed that the future could be seen. They put it off as the whims of some eccentric old woman who had outlived her useful purpose. Still, she would never give up. Not while she still had a breath in her lungs and a heart beating in her breast.

_ She comes._

The old crone blinked as she heard the fire speak to her. It had been months since the flames had whispered anything. Leaning closer she peered into the heart of the slowly dying fire and deep within the glowing embers she saw the coming traveler.

At the mouth of the cave stood a young woman, wrapped in silvery shawls that repelled the rain in rivulets down the shiny material. She was fairly tall, definitely more so then the old woman and was a bit more curvaceous then she knew most women were these days.

Her eyes were hidden behind a silvery visor that wrapped around her head, reflecting the fire back at the old woman. But perhaps the most noticeable trait of this woman was her hair.

It wasn't red, not like a normal redhead, but a vary gradient of blonde through gold through copper all the way to blood red. A rainbow of red, even. It was rare that anyone had such hair, even dyed that way. Only one line of people had such tresses.

The Blood of the Scions.

The crone looked back down to her fire and stoked it once with a stick, making the flames sputter and crackle. "Enter my home, young Scioness." She invited the girl. "Be warm and dry."

The redheaded young woman walked slowly towards the fire away from the squall outside. Finding only another blanket across the fore from the crone she carefully lowered herself into a cross-legged position and stared at the older woman across the flames.

The Crone grinned at her and stoked the fire some more, sparks fluttering to the stone ceiling before dimming to non-existence as their life was snuffed out. "It has been a long time since one of The Blood came to ask me of the future." She said conversationally as she set her stoking stick aside.

The younger woman pursed her lips. "What makes you think That's what I came for?" she asked.

"Because I do no see what was, or what is, young Scioness." The crone replied matter of factly. "I only see what could be."

"Not what will be?" the redheaded one asked, skeptically.

The crone sighed and shook her head. "The Future is more vast then the past, dear child." She informed the special woman. "Since what has passed is already gone, and what is already happening, they are set in stone. Only the future flows like a river with an infinite amount of tributaries. I just happen to be able to navigate that river better then most."

"So you are never wrong."

"I would not go that far, child."

This didn't stop the Scioness, however. "My father once told me you were never wrong. Did he lie?"

Looking a bit peeved, the old woman peered across the dancing flames. "I have not been wrong /yet, child." She finally says. "But for every time I am correct, the odds are that I will one day be wrong. It is only an amount of time before fate decides that I have pushed the boundaries of the future enough for it to lash back at me."

The younger woman inhaled sharply. "And then what…?"

The Crone actually smiled, showing the gaps between her old and worn teeth, "Then I retire. And someone takes my burden."

Shuddering the young Scioness just nodded. "Well, then… I will wish you the best of luck with your retirement, Watcher." She said, using the formal title of the crone. "But I did not come here to chat about life jobs."

"Oh no, you didn't. You came to ask if I could see the future. They all do. It's my profession." The Watcher teased. "What would you like to know?"

"What, you don't already know what I wish to be told?"

"The closer the future, dear, the harder to see.. Like someone holding a tapestry too close to your eyes. The further away, the easier it is to see the entire weaving."

Nodding her understanding, though she really didn't, the Scioness turned her eyes to the flames. "You know that the Nemesii have started to raid the outer colonies?"

"It was foretold, Scioness. Though no one heeded my warning. Scion Brelak scoffed in my face if I recall."

The young woman blushed. "My grandfather." She admitted.

The Watcher chuckled hoarsely. "Ah, so you would be Nikiski." She said. "I saw your birth as well. Twenty seasons ago, now, I believe. I had forgotten that. And forgotten you would come to speak with me on the eve of your nineteenth season."

Nikiski, of the Blood of the Scion, blinked in surprise. "You knew?" she asked.. then quickly averted her gaze. "I guess you would have known. You are the Watcher, after all."

"Aye, so I am, Scioness Nikiski. So I am." With that she leaned closer to the fire and concentrated on the flames. They moved with hypnotic grace, full of primordial images that worked their way quickly foreword, passing her by and into the streams of the future. A million images, each calling for her attention.

But she didn't have the time to see them all.. Instead she latched to the closest.. then the next beyond that which had the highest possibility.. Then the next.. the story being built before her eyes in a cascading effect of possibility and potential until she finally had the knowledge she believed she needed.

"The Nemesii come, Scioness." She whispered, then shivering at the horrors that crept into her vision. "No man nor woman has ever seen one. Not a true Nemesii. Only their ships and the black armor. The Nemesii hide their true visage well. Not even I can see what they look like. Only what they will do."

"And what would that be?"

"They come searching for something, Scioness. Something hidden. Again, I do not know what for it hides itself from me. But the Nemesii will come, destroying and subjugating all in it's path. Overthrowing hundreds of worlds. The war will be long and terrible and almost totally consuming."

"Then.. then there is no hope?"

"Yes, there is hope. At least a slim one."

"Three will come." The Watcher told her Three people from somewhere beyond the reaches of all we know. With the support of their followers they will shift the tide of the coming war. It is.. Oh my.. The Prophecy!"

"What Prophecy? Watcher, I must know. What Prophecy?"

"The Power of the One will bind the love of the Two, which will form the Friendship of the Three, which will shape the Legion of the Four." She recited.. the whole vague prophecy sounding almost musical.

"Four..? But You said three will come."

"Yes, Three will come with their minions from beyond what we know.. From the land of our Youth." She told Nikiski. "The Fourth will be from this world."

"But who will they be? How will we know?"

The Watcher sighed and finally looked away from the flames. "The Three will come and you will know them as the Seeker of Lost truths; The Grey Mother, and the Man with Two Souls."

"And the fourth?"

"The Fourth, Scioness Nikiski, will be the Last of the _Full_ Blood." She told her with a sudden look of sympathy.

Nikiski sat still for a moment, stunned by the last title the crone gave. "The last of the Full Blood? But there are many of us. There is no last. We are all in the Tower of the Blood…." She trailed off as the realization hit her.

"All are there, Scioness.. All are there but you."

Throwing herself to her feet, Nikiski ran towards the mouth of the cave, but as she rushed out of the crones home she knew she was too late.

Far over head, like a band of shimmering light, something like a great icy rock streaked towards earth.. Towards the glow of the city far on the other side of the Silver Forest. Crying out, she watches as light lanced from the far away city, striking the object multiple time, vaporizing more and more of it until it was just a sliver.

But a sliver was just enough. It plummeted into the glow of the Great city. Though slowed to almost a halt by her inexperienced reckoning, the silvery dagger from the sky was still going fast enough to stab deeply into the heart of it's enemy…

The stroke was strategic, almost surgical. Though the city was a fair distance away Nikiski could see the target it had struck.

The Tower of the Blood of the Scion. The home of the Avalonian Empire's greatest family. The Bloodline of Kings and Queens, defenders of the Star realms and Wielders of the Blades of the Iron Light.

And in a flash of light which was followed, many seconds later by the resounding thunder, they were all gone.

Nikiski fell to her knees as tears ran down her cheeks. She screamed in anguish at the thought of everything she held dear ceasing to exist in a single moment. She through her hands into the air and shrieked curses at the Nemesii, vowing to destroy each and every one of them until she could shriek no more.

Spent of all her energy, she sobbed and whimpered as she fell to her side on the ground.. Curling into a fetal position and burying her face between her knees which she hugged to her chest.

The Watcher stood at the mouth of her cave, watching the Last of the Full Blood as she tried to hide from the rest of the world. The Watcher, too, was crying as she saw the tower of the beloved Scions of the blood crumbling in flames.

"I hate being right.." she whispered, suddenly very tired. She pulled her blanket around her shoulders and limped barefoot across to the still crying young woman. She knelt down and pulled the girl into her lap, rocking her gently like the child she had never been able to bare.

"And so it begins.." she whispered, looking once more to the burning tower in the Great City of Avalon."

"So it begins."


	15. Chapter 15

_**Author's Note: **Well I survived Hurricane Dennis. Was without power for 6 days, which means no AC, but now all is good. I was having DT's from internet and cold air withdrawl. No damage to my house or my ex-inlaws place where I was staying, though a lot of neighbors houses got whacked. Got some great photage of the storm too. Stood out in it on the front porch as the eye-wall passed over us. _

_Anyways, now I'm back and though I am doing a lot of local cleanup and work is crazy I am going to try to keep the chapters coming every second or third day. Thanks to all of you who have kept reviewing. I hope I get extra time to review you back :) You have made this story worth writing_

_

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_** Chapter 15**

"_**You." he whispered. "I never thought I'd see you again."**_

Even now, hours later while walking down the corridors of the SGC's barracks level, Jack couldn't quite believe it. He could remember how he just stood there, as if pole axed, staring at the giant Scotsman.

It had taken Colonel Kincaid a few extra moments to register just who Jack was as well, the look of shocked recognition mirroring the General's almost perfectly. Even Daniel seemed to finally get it and realize that this new officer was the very soldier whom had saved Jack's life over a decade ago.

Jack was sure that Daniel was even more intrigued by the fact that beyond the initial introductions and chit chat during the short briefing, neither soldier readily spoke of the shared incident of their past. Truthfully, there was a good reason for this. It was a very private thing, for Jack, that entire mission and how it had ended. And he was quite sure that the Colonel felt the same.

Still, they would have to speak of it sometime. And better sooner then later. It had been almost twelve hours since he had ended the short briefing, telling the Scotsman that he could go and set up his temporary quarters and settle in. It would be at least a week or two of solid briefings and meetings and what not before Kincaid was assigned his post at the Vannaheim Command Center and Jack wanted to get this out of the way before that.

Stepping up to the door of the single occupancy room, reserved for visiting officers, Jack was about to rap on the door when it opened. He blinked in surprise as Colonel Kincaid stood in the doorway, dressed down in SAS BDUs that were slightly different then the SGC's in color. Black slacks and a grey wool sweater like shirt the giant looked down at Jack and smiled faintly.

"Can I be uv service, General?"

Jack stared a moment, then smiled back and chuckled. "Well first off, since neither of us is exactly on duty you can call me Jack." He told the man. Then he produced a six-pack of dark beer from behind his back. "And second, I believe I owe you a drink."

Ezekiel looked down at the beer and his mismatched eyes lit up as if it were Christmas. "Well then, Jack, come on in and make yuirself comfortable." He said, stepping back to allow Jack entry.

Five minutes later, the beer was stashed away in the small mini-fridge in the corner and both the officers were relaxing. Jack was leaning back on a foldable chair, boots kicked up on the foldout table while Ezekiel sat on the bed since he didn't like any furniture that had hinges. A wise precaution considering his size.

Neither had spoken since Jack came in, instead nursing their beers in a near complete yet not uncomfortable silence. Of course, Jack finally broke that.

"You know, Zeke… I never got to properly thank you." He told the Scotsman after taking a draught off his longneck bottle.

Zeke shrugged and hefted his bottle. "Well, ye could 'ave done it by bringin _real_ beer, Jack." He told him, "Not this American swill."

Jack made a face, looking hurt. "Hey, I _like_ this beer." He cried, "At least I don't need a friggin fork and knife to drink it. God, I still haven't found any difference between Guinness and porridge." He took another sip then pointed the bottle at Kincaid accusingly. "And you know that's not what I meant, Zeke. I owe you. I owe you big."

Ezekiel shifted a bit uncomfortably where he sat for a moment, chugging a third of his beer in a gulp then wiping his lips with the back of his hand before belching and muttering something about gassy American beers before answering Jack's accusation. "I did what I did, Jack. Nothing muir and nuthin less. Ye would 'ave done tha same fuir me."

Jack made a rude sound with his lips. "That's not the point. You and your men went above and beyond the call of duty, dragging me out of that dessert with the Bedouins and Hussein's little shock troopers on our asses. Neither of us was supposed to be there. I could have compromised your entire mission. You really should have left me there."

Sighing, Kincaid shook his head. "Ye know... I really did think about that at tha time. Leavin ye, I mean."

"Really? Then why the hell didn't you. Not that I'm complaining, mind you but… well… I'm curious. You and your people didn't owe me anything." Jack reminded him

"It's 'ard ta explain, Jack." Ezekiel said, looking into his beer. He watched the dark bubbles in his beer rising slowly in intricate patterns to the foamy surface. "Do ye believe in visions?" he asked, slowly.

Jack raised a brow, something that had become easier and easier in the years of hanging out with Teal'c. "What? You mean like Madam Cleo and ESP and stuff?"

The giant grimaced. "Jack, I am bein serious."

The General held up his hands. "Hey, I'm not saying nothing. Serious is my middle name." Of course, Zeke rolled his eyes at that. "I've seen a lot of stuff in the ten years I've been in this crackpot program. Including visions of every sort you can imagine." Then he fell silent for a moment, just a beat. "So… you're saying a vision told you to save a broken and dying American black-operative's life?" he asked now, slowly.

Sighing, Kincaid drained his beer entirely as he rose from the bed. Tossing the empty in the trash bin he opened the fridge and fished out one. He held it up for Jack to see, as if offering. Jack indicated he was good so Ezekiel just closed the fridge and twisted off the cap before he sat back down on the bed that, Jack thought, was probably too short for the giant.

"I guess I am." Kincaid finally admitted, then took a slower sip of his beer then before on the last bottle. "It's strange, really. I've never admitted it ta anyone. Did ye see on me record the few years before I made me own command in tha SAS? The ones that were blanked out?"

"Yeah, I did. I wanted to ask you about that. I know I shouldn't but…"

"No, it be okay. Yuir clearance is probably equivalent ta the level needed in Britain. An even if it weren't, I'll tell ye. Ye know what Remote Viewer's are, right?"

"Uhm, yeah. I do. Some sorta psychic spies, right?"

"Right." Ezekiel said seriously, as if giving a lecture to a new student. "Russia and tha U.S. weren't tha only powers doing work with Psychic warfare back then. Almost every country that 'ad access ta nukes also dabbled in it. Guess 'avin tha power ta wipe out whole nations, yet not really able ta use it, made a few people a bit eccentric when it came ta findin tha newest cuttin edge uv warfare. Anyways, America 'ad it's program called, ironically enough, Project Stargate. Russia 'ad their KGB psychics and Britain... They created a special service called MI-13."

Jack had to chuckle at the Stargate reference, and actually filed that away in his mind for future use as a plausible deniability scenario if they required it. But beyond that he shook his head at the rest. "Uhm, Okay... Now you're going all X-Files on me, Zeke... You're saying that Britain formed an entire Intelligence service out of supposed psychics."

"Well, a /whole/ service be going a bit far," The Scotsman admitted. "There wuir only 23 uv us." Jack raised both eyes when Kincaid said that but the giant was able to cut him off before he said something and continued. "I was fourteen when I first started with MI-13. I 'ad been in and out uv foster 'omes fuir five years at that point after a stint in Great Britain's Catholic Orphanage service." For a moment, the Giant looked haunted, but he quickly shrugged it off. "Anyways, I 'ad been in Juvenile 'all after runnin away once more, and while I was coolin me 'eels tha councilor one day came in and asked for some volunteers fuir an experiment. Basically a bunch uv us met a pair of doctors who ran tests. Ye know. They checked brain waves and our reflexes and then they did tha test with the cards. Ye know the one."

"Like on Ghostbusters." Jack said sagely.

"Right. Well, anyways, after the tests were done they left and a few weeks later they came back again. They approached me and asked if I would like to continue in the experiment. Thinkin it was an easy out I said yes. Well the rest, they say, is 'istory. They got me in a good foster 'ome and for two years they trained me and a bunch uv others who they had discovered. They said our ESP ratins were the highest in the whole country. They trained us in remote viewin and such."

"Did it actually work? The remote viewing thing?" Jack asked, skeptically.

Kincaid shrugged. "It's ard ta say, and explain. I mean, they would just give us a scenario or task and we would... Remote view. That's tha only way I can describe it. Some uv us drew what we were asked to look for. Other's would dictate what they 'eard. Or give descriptions. We were never told if tha results were correct."

"Then it's all hooey." Jack said, almost smugly.

"Maybe." Ezekiely relented, "All I can say for sure is that some of us were… Well... We viewed even when we didn't try. And from 'ow much we were singled out fuir 'missions' I believe we were the most correct.

Jack still looked skeptical. "So, you're psychic then?"

"I cannae say, Jack. Maybe I _wuz_. Or maybe I just 'ad a vivid imagination or wuz good at putting together and recognizing patterns. In tha end, it dinnae matter. The project closed down when I was seventeen. That's when I lied about my age and applied for tha Army and frum there I was invited inta tha SAS."

"So you still have these, uhm, Visions now?"

"No. I mean, I never 'ad them _too_ often ta begin with. At least not ones that just 'appened uv their own accord. But I stopped 'avin any uv them completely about 10 years ago. After me accident."

"Accident?"

Kincaid nodded and took another sip of his beer. "Ye did see that I 'ave been retired fuir a while in me record, right?"

"Yeah." Jack said, shaking his head and smiling weakly. " Seems you got sucked into this like I did. At least the second time."

Kincaid smirked. "Second time? What about tha first? The Mission ta.. uhm.. Abydos?"

"It was a suicide mission, Zeke."

Kincaid inhaled sharply. "A suicide mission? What tha 'ell?"

"Remember when we first met and I had a wife that was expecting?" Jack asked.

"Yeah."

"Ten years ago my son, Charlie, accidentally killed himself with my service revolver."

Kincaid closed his eyes in a pained expression, looking guilty. "Geeze.. Oh lord, Jack... I didna know…."

"Hey, it's okay. A lot of things have happened since then. I am at peace over it now. I discovered a few things on that mission. Things that helped me on the road to recovery of my soul. Which is why I retired the first time. So, lets go back to the original topic," Jack said, trying to steer them back to their conversation and not dwell on this one, " What happened to you that made you retire?"

Recovering a bit, Kincaid once more looked into his beer. "I went back ta Iraq. The first Gulf War. Remember all those CNN shots of tha bunkers being bombed? Me and me team were one of the best groups of 'Painters' around. We painted more targets fuir ye bombers ta 'it then any other team."

"Really? So what went wrong?

"I 'ad a vision. Me last vision. We were runnin under cover of a diversionary strike through Baghdad when we came across some of Sadam's guards about ta execute a family in an alley. We were instructed ta keep a zero profile, unseen, and not interfere with anything... But I 'ad a flash, Jack. I saw the family 'ad an important future. That their son and unborn daughter needed ta live. I couldn't 'elp it. I rushed tha small group of Guards and in tha fight one uv em threw a grenade. Me men scattered ta the winds, but the family couldn't. I through meself between them and the grenade and in a flash everything disappeared. A week and a 'alf later I woke up in a field 'ospital with a boat load uv shrapnel in me. And one lodged in me brain that couldna be removed. I 'aven't a vision since, but I did save the family so I didn't mind losin that small part uv me. And I retired the moment I was shipped back ta Britain."

Jack let out a low whistle and leaned up a bit to examine Ezekiel's head. "You have a hunk of metal in your head?" he asked, impressed and looking somewhat concerned. "And they cleared you for active duty?"

"It's not goin anywhere, Jack… The doctors were amazed at 'ow 'well' it was placed. No way it can be moved. It's just stuck there, 'armless unless they take it out."

Jack shivered at the thought. "And I thought my bad knees were, well, bad."

Ezekiel grinned. "Yeah but that's just age catchin up ta ya."

"Oh har-de-har-har. You're, what, only five years younger then me?"

"Yes, but Scottish men get better with age."

"Name one!"

"Sean Connery."

Jack scowled. "EXCEPT Sean Connery!"

"Ye cannae ask me ta _not_ name Sean Connery, Jack. It's like if I asked ye ta name one uv tha best 'ockey players of all time and didn't allow ya ta say Wayne Gretzky."

"I don't know what bothers me more me more. That you are right or that some Scottish guy knows who Wayne Gretzky is."

They both laughed at that and then fell into that silence once more. Each of the men sipped their beers, not looking at anything for a few long moments as they each centered themselves. It was Kincaid who broke the silence, though, this time.

"So.. all kiddin and reminiscin aside… Is this all worth it, Jack?" He asked, tentatively, "Did I make tha right decision comin 'ere? Cause, ye know, I gave up a nice wee pension. A little cabin on tha cliffs complete with a rowboat, a fishin pole, and a nearby tavern in a small village with a young buxom redhead who was eyein me."

Jack smiled faintly and, after lifting the bottle to his lips and draining it, sat up straight in his chair. "I won't lie, Zeke." He said honestly, "Some mornings you'll wake up and wonder if you just screwed the entire world over by accident. You'll second guess yourself constantly. You'll see good people die and come up against things which will strain your imagination to the breaking point. But you ask if it is worth it?"

Kincaid waited for Jacks final answer.

"Yeah, Zeke. It's worth it." Jack finally said, looking as if he didn't regret his own decision for being here at all.

Nodding, Ezekiel drained his own bottle and tossed it in the garbage bin.

"Good." He said, as he walked over to the fridge once more. He picked out two beers and tossed one to Jack.

"Now tell me whut I need ta know ta save tha world at tha drop uv a hat." the giant told the General as he sipped his newly opened beer. He let out a long burp and made a face of disgust.

"And tell me where the 'ell I can find a _real_ beer."


	16. Chapter 16

_**Author's Note**: Yay, I've made it to Sweet Sixteen! sniffle She's all grown up now. Yeah, I know it's a bit fluffy in some ways (and not SJ or any real 'ship in general, thank you very much. SJ is never going to happen in this story) but I wanted to try at least a wee bit of humour. I sorta suck at writing humor but hey, I want to try._

_Thanks for all the reviews so far. I finally learned about the Stats function and I was amazed at the hits I have received on this story. I also want to thank Evilclone profusely. He works so hard and keeps me locked in a little box. Just kidding. Well, about the box part, anyways. Please check out his stories. I know we both miss a few things in the betas but oh well. I'll have two betas soon. I've had offers, you know who you all are. I'll get back to you when my RL schedule evens out from Post-Hurricane stresses. And Evilclone can get back to writing his stories once in a while instead of wasting his time on a hopeless cause like me._

_Until then, please enjoy._

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**Chapter 16**

The mess hall was relatively busy that afternoon, with a number of base personnel actually taking the time to stop by for a real meal instead of sneaking snacks, which was an all to common thing at the SGC. That happened when you worked on a base full of workaholics. No time to eat, usually.

Too busy saving the world and all that.

Since the world wasn't exactly in need of saving this day, people seemed to want to enjoy a nice and filling meal. And the intrepid members of SG-1 were no exception.

Carter sat at the corner in the farthest corner that had, over the years been dubbed the SG-1 table. It was the table where many infamous occurrences had happened over the past ten years since the team had slowly began drifting to it out of habit. On her plate she had a fine looking Veal parmesan and a nice Caesar salad. And, of course, her parfait glass of Blue Jello.

Daniel just stepped out of line, his hands laden with a tray of the B-selection from the buffet. Pork Cutlets and Greens. He gravitated towards 'their' table and sat down across from her, without saying a word as he unrolled his fork and knife form the napkin.

Next, like dominoes falling, Teal'c joined them at the table. Ever since he had lost his symbiote, he had found his body wasn't quite as efficient as it used to be at metabolizing foods. This wouldn't have been much of a problem, really, considering the amount of exercise he got. But he loved his donuts so much and was afraid he would start losing his tone, so the doctor suggested a low sugar/low carbohydrate diet, high in protein. His plate held a large lean cut steak and pretty much nothing else.

The trio slowly ate, picking at their wonderful meals yet savoring them. Each attacked their plates with a lazy vigor. It was after a few bites that Carter spoke up, beginning the traditional chatter.

"So Daniel, have you met him yet?"

Daniel quickly looked up, seeming a bit spaced out. "What?" he asked. Teal'c just smiled faintly and cut himself off another piece of his steak.

"I asked if you had met him, yet."

"Who?"

Teal'c swallowed his steak and washed it down with some water. "I believe, DanielJackson, that ColonelCarter is referring to the new officer ColonelKincaid." He offered his friend as he daintily dabbed his lips with the napkin in his huge hand and then started to carve another piece.

Daniel oh'd and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his finger. "Yeah. I met him last night in Jack's office."

Carter chewed her veal a few moments then nodded as she went to work once more on her meal. "What's he like?" she asked, non-chalantly, hoping to get an idea of this new guy from her friend.

Daniel Blinked. "Like?" he asked. "Uhm, well... He was..." he searched for a word. "Big?"

Both Teal'c and Sam looked at their friend a moment, a bit confused. "Big?" Carter asked, "Just what do you mean by that?"

"I mean that he's… big." The archeologist said again as he started moving the greens around his plate. "You think they use real butter in these? Or margarine."

Rolling her eyes, Sam swallowed her food. "Daniel. You need to be more specific here. Big.… what? How is he big? Is he fat? Broad?"

"Yes DanielJackson. I, too, am confused by your lack of information regarding this mysterious ColonelKincaid. 'Big' is not an entirely descriptive metaphor." The Jaffa said between bites of his steak.

Daniel sighed and, removing his glasses, scrunched his face as he massages the bridge of his nose. "Guys, I…"

"May I join ye?" a deep and heavily resonant voice asked.

At once, the three quickly turned to look at the end of their table and who had spoke to them. They looked up… Up… WAAAAY up and into the roughly hewn face of the newest recruit to the Stargate program.

Daniel quickly stammered something sounding like a yes, motioning to the empty seat that was available. Teal'c just raised that brow of his as he studied what had to be the absolutely tallest human he had ever met.

Carter just stared, mouth agape, at the giant officer. The only word that escaped from her lips was a single, and meek, "Wow."

Kincaid looked at the trio, his own brow raising just as Teal'c's had. He then nodded thanks to Daniel and carefully lowered himself into the free seat. The foldout chair creaked faintly

"Colonel Ezekiel Kincaid, may I introduce you to the other members of SG-1?" Daniel asked. He motioned to Sam first. "This is Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter, our team's commanding officer and resident Theoretical Astrophysicist. If anyone knows more about the Stargate we haven't found them yet."

Kincaid grinned at Carter, and an easy going grin at that. "Tis a pleasure ta meet ya, Colonel Carter." The giant said sincerely and in an extremely friendly yet non-threatening manner. His voice was so deep it was like being drown in melting honey. "Yuir picture in yuir file doesna do ye justice."

Sam blinked once, and then blushed a deep red as she realized the Scotsman was flirting with her. She couldn't believe it. The guy was actually flirting. The way he spoke. What he said. And that voice? It was amazing. She felt warm inside, like she was floating in the resonance. And that Scottish accent…

Damn, this was silly.

Seeing her blush, Kincaid grinned even more and winked. More of a tease then a real flirting wink this time. Sam relaxed a bit when she realized that's just what this was. A tease and nothing more. He was harmless. She even managed a grin. "A pleasure to meet you sir."

Daniel watched the play by play between the two, rolling his eyes. The guy was good, he gave Kincaid that. He made Carter blush with just a few words and the sound of his voice alone. He shook his head and coughed once, getting Kincaid's attention. "And this," he said, motioning to the Jaffa, "This is Teal'c."

The Jaffa and the SAS officer looked at each other, as if sizing each other up. Teal'c had never encountered such a giant before. His hands were the size of hams, powerful looking. And the way he had moved as he had walked up to the table was staggeringly fluid, as if he was a jungle cat. People his size shouldn't be able to be that graceful. And that he was a trained soldier, like O'Neil….

Ezekiel had never met a Jaffa before, but he had read of their intense training that started from an impossibly young age, encouraged by pain and steeled by their intense loyalty to their gods. While Teal'c wasn't as tall as him, Ezekiel's knowing eye could see that he was an extremely confident and well trained fighter.

They both wondered what it would be like to go up against one another. And they both realized that neither one of them would walk away unscathed. Or walk away at all.

They both grinned.

Kincaid offered his hand to Teal'c. "An honor, Teal'c. I read yuir file as well. I only 'ope I can be 'alf the man you are." He said, in complete honesty. "Yuir an asset tat ha SGC and our world is forever in debt ta ye."

Teal'c bowed his head in that respective way. "It is I who should be in debt to you." The Jaffa replied. "O'Neill once told me of how an S.A.S officer saved his life on the battle field. If not for your army, I would never have met O'Neil, nor come to the world of the Tau'ri to fight against my former false gods."

Kincaid blushed deeply, just as Carter had a few moments ago. Sam's eyes went wide, as did Teal'c. Daniel oi'd and closes his eyes.

"Actually, Teal'c, Colonel Kincaid was the officer that saved Jack."

Teal'c almost did a double take at this, looking between his friend and the blushing soldier. "Indeed?" he asked, finally composing himself. "Then I am in your debt, personally, ColonelKincaid. If ever you need help you have but to ask. It would be an honor to assist the man who saved the life of my best friend."

Ezekiel ahemed and nodded, turning back to the table and it's occupants. "Thank you, Teal'c.," he said quietly, looking uncomfortable. Thankfully, Carter decided to try and change the subject.

"So, Colonel, if I may ask. What do you think of the SGC so far?"

Ezekiel picked up his fork and eyed his plate as he contemplated an answer. For a man his size he sure hadn't seemed to have picked much. Steamed asparagus and a large piece of Lemon Chicken that had intrigued him for some reason. His dessert bowl was covered.

"Well, keep in mind lass that I 'ave only ben 'ere fuir just over a day." He reminded Carter. "But so far I like whut I am seein. Confident professionalism with just enough informality ta make it not seem tedious. I'm not used ta being inside an underground complex, mind ye, and I keep expectin ta brain meself on a doorframe but all in all… I think I'll enjoy me stay." The giant said as he carved off a piece of chicken and popped it in his mouth. His eyes rolled as the flavor washed over his palate, taking him to new heights of gastronomic enjoyment. "Oh god... This be good." He moaned.

Carter stifled a giggle at the almost obscene look on the Scotsman's enraptured face.

Teal'c, too, also smiled. "Does not your own military feed you, ColonelKincaid."

Kincaid swallowed, then snorted. "Lad, I was a retired bachelor until a few weeks ago." He told the Jaffa. "I 'aven't ad a real meal like this since… Well... befuir I joined tha military. Tha brits may 'ave some uv tha best trained officers in tha world but... Well, lets just say their be a reason why ye dinna see many English and Scottish cookin programs on tha telly."

It took a moment for Teal'c to realize everything Kincaid said. His accent was a bit confusing, as was his terminology. Luckily, though, he had spent many hours watching 'Are you being served' on the local PBS station.

Not that he would tell anyone.

Again Carter giggled. She really did like this guy. Oh, not THAT way, just in general. She had expected some one more British and 'Stiff upper Lip'. This guy was like a cross between Scotty and that Captain Sparrow from pirates of the Caribbean.

For the next twenty minutes the small group chatted amongst themselves. Nothing to deep or probing. Just idle and fun chatter to get a comfortable feel of each other. As they got caught up in their little universe, Jack came walking into the mess hall.

The line to the food, while it had slackened over the past while, was still fairly on. Now while Jack would, of course, _never_ think of using his rank to get to the front of the line, he didn't dissuade his people _offering_ to let him go to the front. After all, it was rude to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Stepping passed Airmen Weiss, whom avoided all eye contact with the General while he only half heartedly invited his superior to step in front of him, Jack perused the selection quickly. He was in a chicken mood today. And as luck would have it there were three kinds to choose from.

He quickly picked up the Peanut Chicken, one of his favorites. His mouth salivated heavily as he knew the mess crew made it better then any of the places in town. A fact he had learned from years of constant take out.

But then his eyes fell on the plate NEXT to where his had been. There was only one thing better then Peanut Chicken.

Almond chicken.

Now to the average man, The two didn't look all that different. But he wasn't your average man. He was a connesuir, after all.

There was only one plate of Almond Chicken left while there were almost five plates of peanut. After his fiasco with the cake a few days ago, he didn't need another guilt trip from Daniel about using privilege of rank. But still, he wanted that Almond chicken SOOO badly.

A plan formed.

He quickly looked behind him to see if anyone was watching him closely. Satisfied that no one could, he quickly switched the Almond Chicken with the Peanut Chicken.

No one would notice. They didn't have the refined palate he did.

Smiling smugly, he picked up some lo-mein and a peace of cake (this one not the last) and made his way for the SG-1 table. Whistling happily, he smile grew wider as he spotted his friends conversing with the Scotsman.

He stepped up to the table as Kincaid was finishing what had to be a very funny story. Even Teal'c couldn't hide his laughter and that was a hard thing to do. Jack saddled up to the side of the table and everyone quickly looked at him, their eyes still glimmering with tears of mirth.

"Did I miss something?" jack inquired, trying to keep his face free of any Amusement.

Kincaid looked over his shoulder and grinned at his friend. "Oh, General. I didnae see ye there." He said and quickly scooted his chair aside so Jack could Join them. "I was just sharing a self depreciating joke with yuir old team.

Jack pulled up a seat and, after setting down his tray, slipped into it. He picked up his fork and smirked at the four of them. "Dare I ask?"

Daniel was wiping his cheeks with a napkin. "Oh god, Jack. I don't know. You may not find it too funny."

"Try me."

Daniel looked at the other three. They all just shrugged, still smiling, and let Daniel take the stage.

"Okay then. What's the difference between the Rolling stones and a Scottish shepherd?"

_Uh oh_, Jack thought.

"Oh God. I'm almost afraid to ask." Jack said as he forked up his first peace of chicken. "What?"

"Well, the Rolling stones sing 'Hey, You, get off of my Cloud." Danielle Explained, "And the Scottish Shepherd says "Hey, Mcleod, get off of my Ewe."

Jack groaned, wincing at the punch line as the others broke into giggles. Even Kincaid found it funny, but probably more so from the look on Jacks face.

Jack sighed and shook his head, stifling a chuckle. "Daniel, don't give up your day Job." He said as he took his first bite of his Pilfered Almond Chicken. His eyes almost rolled in his head. "Oh my god." He moaned as if in the final throws of some carnal passion.

Carter looked at the General, amused by the almost obscene look in his face. "Good?" she asked as she spooned up some of her Jello. Teal'c was working on a bowl of ice cream, as was Kincaid who was trying not to laugh at Jack's food-gasm. Daniel just sipped his coffee.

It took Jack a few seconds to come down from his heights of food-induced delirium. He nodded to carter and picked up another bite. "Yasureyabetchya." He mumbled around a second forkful.

"What is it?" Daniel asked Casually. "Looks like chicken. Lemon?"

Jack washed down the food with some water and shook his head. "Nope, Almond." He said as he picked up a forkful.

Daniel frowned at his friend and leaned closer. "Jack, there was only one plate of that left." He told his friend disapprovingly.

Jack sighed and raised his free hand, another forkful of chicken holding a few inches from his mouth. "Daniel, don't fret it." He assured his friend. "This isn't like last time. I switched it. No one will ever know."

Now Carter and Teal'c looked at Jack as well, brows furrowed at their CO. "Sir," Carter said. "What could you switch it with? People would know just by at it that it wasn't Almond Chicken."

The General gave her a conspiratorial look, grinning now at his own shrewdness. "Not if I replaced it with a plate of peanut chicken." He said smartly. He licked his lips and went to take that next delicious bite.

And was promptly stopped by Daniel's whining.

"But _Jaaaaaack_." He groaned. "You can't do that!"

Jack growled and set down his fork. "Damnit, Daniel. It's only CHICKEN. They are close enough that almost no one would notice!" he told his friend. "Now what's the friggin problem? Oh, let me guess. It was being saved for Airman Weiss, right?" he asked, sarcastically. "For another special day, perhaps."

Suddenly from behind them there came a loud shriek. Everyone in the entire room turned and stared as Airman Weiss quickly stood, clutching his neck with both hands as if he was attacking himself to the death. He danced backwards, pushing over chairs and over turning a table.

Finally fell onto his back in a spread eagle, as if all his muscles had turned to jelly. His neck and face was all swollen as if a hundred bees had stung him at once and his face was turning a shade of purple that could only be expressed as somewhat unhealthy, and his right leg twitched.

Everyone at the SG-1 Table blinked, Except for Daniel who slowly drew his hands down his face in a show of exasperation.

"No." he said, finally, as a number of other personnel went to the unconscious Weiss's aid. "They were saving it for him because Airman Weiss is severely allergic to Peanuts"

Jack Blinked and looked at Weiss as the medics ran in with a stretcher, then he looked at his friend who sighed at him, then back to the prone Airman who was being given mouth to mouth.

"Oh for cryin out loud!"


	17. Chapter 17

_**Author's Note: **Well it's been a while since the last post. Between after hurricane cleanup, extra hours at work and a nasty bug I've just sort of gotten my equilibrium back. As always, I thank you for all the reviews. I promise I will be getting back of track with the posts soon. And Evilclone? You better bring me back something from your vacation:P_

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**Chapter 17**

The next few days passed rather quickly. Ezekiel buried himself in his briefings and repots, trying to bring himself as up to date as quickly as possible. It was a hard, if almost impossible, task since a vast amount of knowledge had been accumulated over the past ten years since Stargate Command came online.

When he wasn't being smothered by an avalanche of report papers, video, computer presentations and numerous lectures given by the multi-talented personnel, the giant was locked in one lab or another learning about the various amounts of technology he would have at his disposal.

From the very beginning his favorite piece of equipment was the Staff Weapon. While over the years the various SG teams had accumulated many of the destructive weapons, they were rarely ever used. And only so many were actually needed by the scientists to experiment with. Thus a good number of them were stored on the lower levels of the base.

When Siler had told Kincaid of the weapons and offered to give the Colonel a demonstration, the Scotsman's eyes lit up like a child's on Christmas morning. From the first blast of energy blowing away a target he was hooked.

So every day he spent an hour on the range, either practicing with the staff weapon or Z'at. He didn't need much practice with the P-90 since it was an SAS standard issue weapon and he had been using once since they first came out.

After his range time he would hit the gym for a bit of a workout. This was a bit harder for him then the weapons practice. He wasn't a spring chicken anymore and while his body was still in great shape for a man his age, and especially his size, it took a lot more to keep it that way. So he spent a minimum of two hours a day on vigorous workouts.

On his third day, while working at the punching bag, Jack and Daniel walked in. Kincaid's hands were a blur as he laid strike after strike, left after right, on the sawdust filled bag of canvas as the pair entered the gym. Both were in sweats and t-shirts, Jacks obviously more worn then Daniels as the archeologists were still so clean that they must have just come out of the package.

"So I heard that they'll be letting Airman Weiss out of the Infirmary today." Daniel said as he set his towel on a bench and started stretching.

Jack snorted as he crouched down, squatting a few times to get his legs warmed up. "Don't start, Daniel." He complained, his knees cracking loudly a few times. "It's not like I killed him."

"Jack, he went into encephalitic shock. His throat swelled three times its size and he was a darker colour of blue then Sam's jello."

"Now you're exaggerating, Daniel. Carter's jello isn't blue. It's more of an aquamarine."

Kincaid could just grin as he heard the two bantering. He finished his last round of punches and, stepping back from the bag started to undo the tape around his hands. The giant looked over his shoulder and shook his head. "Still maintainin yuir innocence, General?" he asked, his deep voice filled with mirth.

Jack looked up at Kincaid and his face screwed up. "Does everyone think I switched his chicken on purpose?" he grumped.

"Actually, Jack, you did." Daniel reminded him. "I mean, you specifically said you traded the two plates because you thought no one would notice."

"For god's sakes, Daniel, I didn't mean it as a malicious act. I just didn't realize that Weiss was allergic to peanuts. I mean, how was I supposed to know."

"Perhaps by reading 'is file?" Kincaid offered.

Jack shot Kincaid a dirty look, though it's supposed intimidation factor was lost on the giant who, instead of cringing, laughed.

"By tha way," Kincaid finally asked as he sat down on the bench and grabbed his towel. "Where is Teal'c? Doesna 'e work out with ya two?"

Jack grunted as he stood up and spread his legs as far as he could, stretching the ligaments slowly and steadily. "Ya'd think." He said gruffly as he bent over and touched his fingers to the back of one calve, then slowly rose then bent again to touch the other. "I swear the boy has packing on a few pounds since he lost Junior."

Kincaid rose an eyebrow at that. "He lost his son?" he asked, slowly. "I didna know.."

"No no no," Daniel said, quickly speaking up. "Junior is just Jack's pet name for Teal'c old symbiote." He then looked at Jack. "And I don't think you should be calling Teal'c fat, Jack."

"Not fat, Daniel, just big boned."

Kincaid snickered and tossed the last of the tape into the garbage bin and grabbed his own towel off the back of a chair. "Doesna explain why 'e isn't 'ere." He pointed out as he unfolded the towel and took the water bottle out that was safely hidden within.

Jack Sighed and finally straigtened out. "Well if you _must_ know, Teal'c is off world talking to some of the Free Jaffa, trying to get support for their new government." He eyed the giant curiously. "Why _did_ you want know? Did you need a sparring partner?"

Snorting, Kincaid squirted some water into his mouth, swishing it around a few times before spitting a stream into the trash bin. "Naw. 'e just offered ta show me some uv these moves. Some Jaffa martial art uir something."

Daniel ahhh'd and nodded. "You mean **_Lok'nel._**"

Kincaid nodded and squirted some more water into his mouth, though he swallowed it this time before answering. "Yeah, that be tha one, lad."

"You're interested in martial arts?"

"Somewhat. I mean I wuz black ops, remember."

Jack smirked and walked over to the light punching bag. "We don't all study martial arts, Colonel." He called over his shoulder as he took up a spread legged stance, bringing fists up.

Kincaid shot him a look, and then ignored the Colonel who started pummeling away on the speed bag and regarded Daniel. "Well, I guess that's true." He admitted as he set down his bottle and started wiping himself off. "It's not like in tha movies where all black op soldiers are all ninjas uir something like that. See, we all get basic and advanced hand'ta'hand combat trainin, and many of tha moves are derived from various martial arts and fighting styles as tha instructors seem fit. But some uv us like ta broaden our 'orizons, lad. Me, I'm not a black belt at anything. I just learn what seems ta work and use it."

Daniel nodded as he walked over to a stationary bike and climbed on. "Makes sense." He admitted as he started to adjust the tension knob.

Suddenly the intercom speaker blared to life, a warning klaxon followed by flshing red lights. Walter's tinny voice reverberating through the room and, probably, the rest of Stargate Command. "Unscheduled Off world Activation… Unscheduled Offword Activation. General O'Neil please report to the Control Room."

Instinct taking over, both Jack and Daniel stopped in mid-exercise and both quickly ran for the green phone inset on the wall. Jack picked up it up and held it to his ear while Daniel hovered just behind him.

"What's going on, Walter?" The general asked. He was silent a moment as, obviously, Walter spoke to him. "I see. Okay then we'll be right up." And with that he hung up the phone and grabbed his towel.

"So?" Daniel asked, curious. "What's going on."

"Seem's were getting a long distance call. A very long distance call from some friends." Jack said as he turned for the door. "Come on, Daniel. You too, Colonel." And with that he led the two out of the gym.

* * *

Jack, Daniel and Zeke sat at the table in the briefing room, still dressed in their workout clothes, looking up at a large widescreen display that had been wheeled in. Above the screen was a video camera, it's red light blinking. And on the screen…

The faces of Doctor Elizabeth Weir, Rodney McKay and Lieutenant Shephard.

The Atlantis trio were grinning like fools at the three people in the briefing room. Jack and Daniel returned the grins with ones of their own. Ezekiel just smiled slightly as, beyond the most initial of reports, he till wasn't quite in the loop.

"Well, Elizabeth, it seems that our care packages arrived safely." Jack finally said, leaning foreward and interlacing his fingers. "You're all looking well. Can I assume everything went well?"

Elizabeth nodded, still smiling but also seeming a bit tired suddenly. "Yes, General, we're fine now. At least for the time being. Between the Daedalus and the ZPM we are in a much better position then we were a few days ago."

Jack nodded. He knew that this conversation wouldn't touch everything they needed to. The time limit on the wormhole preventing any conversation longer then 30 minutes. But he also knew that while they spoke, sub carrier frequencies were transmitting data back and forth constantly, each side updating the other with reports and files. "That's good to hear, Elizabeth. I take it the losses weren't overwhelming?" he asked, carefully.

Elizabeth sighed, her smile dropping a bit. As were both her companions. "The losses were light.. At least light compared to what they could have been. Still…."

"Still, no loss is a truly acceptable one, is it?" Jack finished. She just nodded.

The conference was silent for just a moment, sort of awkward too, until Shepherd motioned to the giant officer at the table. "Who's he?"

Jack looked quickly at Ezekiel, then smiled. "This, Lieutenant, is Colonel Ezekiel Kincaid of Her majesties Special Air Services." He introduced the giant. Smiling, Ezekiel nodded once at the screen.

"A pleasure."

The three Atlantians nodded back. "Yes, Colonel, it is a pleasure to meet you." Weir replied. "I know we've been out of touch a while, General O'Neil, but I wasn't aware the British had a Liaison officer with the SGC."

"oh, they don't. Not with the Mountain, anyways. The Colonel will be our primary Military officer for the Vannaheim base."

Shepherd frowned slightly. "Vanneheim… is that near Los Angeles or something?" he asked. "I'm not Familiar with that base."

Jack smiled innocently. "Oh no, Vanneheim base is our new facility on Mars."

He let that sink in. The three Atlantians were frozen in a state of disbelief.

"What Facility?" Rodney McKay, Atlantis's head Scientist asked.

"Oh you know. Vanneheim. The large city built by the ancients under the great face, populated by a quarter million Proto-Asguard, which contains the First Stargate ever constructed, three zpm's, and gives us the ability to not allow constant gate travel with Atlantis very soon but will allow us to search for the six other cities the Ancients launched to separate galaxies."

Weir, Shepherd and McKay gaped, their jaws seeming to want to fall right off their faces.

"An Asguard city on Mars?" Weir whispered.

"Six /other/ cities?" John croaked.

"/THREE/ Zed-PMs?" Rodney Squeaked.

Before they could all speak at once, a thousand questions flittering through their confused minds, Jack lifted his wrist and checked his watch. "Sorry guys. The wormhole will close in a minute or two more." He said non chalanttly. "Doctor Weir. I expect you and the your people in command to be here in fourteen days, courtesy of the Daedalus, since we won't have the master gate ready for inter-galactic gate travel for a few more weeks. Other then that, enjoy the reports we've sent. Toodles."

The Atlantis team leaders blinked. Well, Weir and John Blinked. McKay looked like he was about to have a schizophrenic embolism. "THREE ZED-PM'S!" He cried but was cut off from anything more as the wormhole collapsed and killed the transmission.

Daniel and Kincaid turned to eye the general, who was grinning as he leaned back in his chair and interlaced his fingers behind his head and smiled smugly.

"I think tha geeky lookin one was about ta 'ave a seizure." Kincaid commented.

Daniel snorted. "Or a stroke. Really, Jack, that was sort of cruel to just drop on them with little elaboration. Did you see Rodney? You'd think he was about to have kittens… Out his nose."

Jack grinned even more. "God, I love being King!" he cackled.

* * *

John knocked on Elizabeth's office door, sticking his head through the opening and smiling at his boss as she was reading the new reports on her laptop. "You busy?" he asked, and showed he came bearing gifts. Namely a cup of fresh coffee from the new supplies the Daedalus had brought them.

Weir looked up and seeing the coffee smiled. "Come on in, John."

A minute later the two of them were sharing coffee and looking out the window at the sun setting over the vast ocean that surrounded the ancient city. Elizabeth sipped her coffee, watching the orange and yellow light diffuse across the water like fire, then gave Shepherd a sidelong glance.

"Is Rodney okay?" she asked, trying to sound serious.

"Oh yeah." John said, sipping his coffee then setting it down. "He's doing just fine."

"I wasn't sure, I was afraid he had a concussion from when he fainted."

"Nah, he didn't feint. He passed out. Lack of food and sleep."

Elizabeth's lips quirked faintly. "Of course." She said, knowingly, cradling her mug in he hands. "It had nothing to do with the fact that we've spent a year fighting Wraiths and trying to find a single ZPM while back home they've found four, if you count the one the Daedalus brought us, in less then 3 months."

John grinned. "Nope, had nothing to do with it at all." He said and they both looked out to stare at the sun as it seemed to slowly sink into the sea.

"John?" Elizabeth asked, as the last slivers struggled to stay above the horizon.

"Yeah, Elizabeth?"

"Do you think these other lost cities will make our's less important. Make our sacrifice less important?"

"Oh hell no." John replied, confidently.

Elizabeth regarded him with a raised brow. "And you're sure of this… how?"

John leaned back and enjoyed the last few rays of sunlight as they boiled away.

"Because Atlantis is the first name in the alphabetical ordered list of lost cities." He said. "And the most important things are always at the top of the list."


	18. Chapter 18

_**Author's Note: **Hey Hey Hey. Yeah, I know it's been a while since I last updated and that I promised that chapters would be coming faster but RL threw me a few curveballs so I had to make some Lemonade... urr.. something like that. And I took a brief hiatus writing an Atlantis fic (check it out). So now, wothout ny further adeu I present chapter 18 in the ongoing Farthest Stars. saga. Thanks you all for the enthusiasm you have shown (you all know who you are) and THHHHHBT to Evilclone for not getting me a present from his vacation. ;)_

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**Chapter 18**

Roger Cairns materialized on the Control Deck of Vaneheim Base's Gateroom in a flash of light. Actually, Gate_bay_ was more accurate since the entire uppermost levels of the Vanir's Central Spire were taken up by the cavernous room. After all these many weeks he still wasn't quite over the sheer size of the Tower, or the city itself. Nor the fact that one had to ring from the bay floor itself up to the Control Deck.

Personnel scurried around the young Scot, each with a thousand tasks at hand. Humans from dozens of countries, Vanir and Asguard alike all striving to get more and more of Vaneheim's almost fifty thousand year old systems online. The city was slowly coming to life and while the final number of awoken Vanir, that quarter million, would be the predominant species of the city, there was more then ample enough room for their new human friends to live in the city while helping them man the new extension base of the Stargate program.

In fact, Roger had just arrived from his new quarters halfway across the city where he had been moving his scant belongings to from the temporary barracks quarters within the Control Spire itself. After many weeks of working with his new Vanir and Asguard colleagues on slowly translating the beginnings of the Ancients records, he had been looking foreword to a relaxing evening in his new large apartment that overlooked a now thawed lake instead of spending another night in that damned uncomfortable cot.

So, of course, it didn't really surprise him that the moment he plopped down on the Vanir made, yet very comfortable, couch his radio buzzed and informed him that the SGC's new Military Liaison would be arriving a few days early for inspection before taking command of the military portion of Vaneheim Base.

He was surprised, however, when he was told that Daniel Jackson insisted he give the new Colonel a tour.

Sighing, the young archeologist and doctor-soon-to-be hurried downstairs and drove his Personal Transportation vehicle (a glorified golf cart, really) halfway across the city's still very empty streets.

And now he was in the control center, looking down at the gate and it's backdrop of the city through the huge transparent metal wall. The chevrons lit up, one by one, quickly and the wormhole flushed into life.

Sveigder, one of the Vanir technicians who had been awoken with the first wave of his people, looked between the Ancient designed console and the modern Tauri laptop perched on top of it. "Mister Cairns, we're receiving an IDC code." He said in his almost musical contralto as he studied the readout on the laptop. "It's Stargate Command."

Cairns nodded and smiled at the young (if you didn't count nearly fifty millennia of hibernation) alien. Like the rest of the Vanir, Sveigder was rather tall, even compared against human norms. Roughly five foot eleven, completely hairless and with ears so small that you almost missed them on the slightly elongated and more sharply rounded head, he still seemed to have a more human physiology then his modern descendents, the Asguard. Though the larger then human eyes, almost all black with faint whites, his silver grey skin and slightly longer in proportion arms separated him from humanity quite easily.

Still, at least he wasn't naked like the Asguard were, nor did he wear the skintight silver cat suits that his people seemed to wear. In fact, Sveigder had quickly become enamored by jeans and t-shirts and currently wore clothes that had been donated by Cairns himself. Black jeans, which were more professional looking then blue, and a white t-shirt.

Chuckling at the thought that an Alien was wearing his clothes, Roger nodded to Sveigder. "Bring down the forcefield and signal the SGC we're ready to receive."

Nodding, the Vanir pressed buttons on the Ancient's console with one hand as he typed on the laptop with the other. The forcefield, controlled by the Ancient's technology, flickered below and deactivated. The laptop, that also served as their IDC checker until they could install a system or repair the receiver the Vanir had used, sent the signal that the field was down back to Earth through the Gate.

The laptop chirped a response from the SGC and the young Vanir looked back to his new human friend. "SGC confirms our signal. They're sending the shipment now, Roger."

Nodding, Roger peered once more over the railing of the Control Deck and down at the Gate. One by one large cylindrical cargo containers rolled through the gate on carts and down the ramp, led by SGC airmen. Soon quarter of the bay was filled with the cargo containers and when the final one came through it was followed by the tallest human Roger had ever seen.

Colonel Kincaid's exit from the gate, while not as bad as some Roger had seen from a first time traveler, was still not quite graceful. The giant, whom usually moved with the precision fluidity of a jungle cat, weaved and stumbled a number of feet before stabilizing himself against a cargo pod. He breathed deeply, almost raggedly, as a few of the Airmen made sure he was all right.

Finally, the giant straightened and grinned and said something that must have been funny since the airmen all laughed, though which Roger couldn't hear since he was so far away. Kincaid dismissed all but one of them, who led him to the transport rings which enveloped him, and deposited the Colonel on the control deck a few feet after of Roger only a second later.

Turning to face the Officer who, instead of the standard SGC field uniform wore a SAS one, though with the SGC badge sewn onto the shoulder, Roger walked up to Kincaid and Offered his hand to him.

"Welcome to Vaneheim Base, Colonel." The young Scot said by way of greeting, "I'm Roger Cairns, Doctor Arliss's assistant."

Kincaid blinked at the young man a second and for a moment Roger felt uncomfortable. As if he were being judged or scrutinized. Finally, the Colonel's face broke into a huge smile and he took the small hand in his huge one, pumping it friendly like.

"It's a pleasure ta meet ya, lad." He boomed, surprising Roger with not a British accent, but a familiar Scottish one. The two scots grinned at each other now, like any two kinsmen would.

"Daniel never told me ya wuir Scottish, Colonel." Roger told the man after having his thoroughly mangled hand released.

Kincaid waved that off. "I think 'e wanted it ta be a surprise, lad." He said. "Damned strange sense uv 'umor that boy 'as got, Mister Cairns. Been spending a wee bit too much time with a certain general who shall remain nameless."

Chuckling, Roger could only agree with the SAS officer. "Yeah. Anyways Colonel, Doctor Jackson informed me I was ta give ye tha ten cent tour and answer any questions ye 'ad. Doctor Arliss is back on Earth for the next week befuir 'e returns so I am liasoning as the Head of the cultural scientists until 'e returns."

Kincaid nodded and, clasping his hands behind his back, looked about the control deck. Many of the technicians, civilian and military and alien alike were looking at him directly, waiting for him to address them. Kincaid just smiled and nodded to them. "At ease, people. I'm not yuir boss unless ye be in a uniform." His eyes traveled down to the alien in jeans and a t-shirt and he raised an eyebrow. "'allo." He said, cheerfully yet cautiously. Kincaid had yet to actually meet an alien and hoped that he looked more comfortable then he felt. He was nervous, not because of any bias but because he didn't want to offend anyone.

Sveigder, though he had known a few ancients as a child and had been working with humans since his awakening, had never before seen _any_ evolution of humanity as big as Kincaid. Not even the Jaffa, Teal'c. Yet he didn't seem at all intimidated. In fact he smiled a smile so very human that Kincaid immediately felt his tension subside.

"Hello, Colonel." Sveigder said back. "I am Sveigder."

Kincaid nodded and bowed slightly. "A pleasure, Mister Sveigder." He replied, then eyes the Alien's wardrobe. "Hmmmm, nice threads."

Roger grinned and stifled a chuckle while the Vanir Technician just smiled, if only a bit uncertainly.

"Uh, yes. Thank you, Sir."

Patting the young Vanir on the shoulder, Kincaid just nodded as he finally turned away, stifling a chuckle of his own. "Well, Mister Cairns. I guess it be time fuir that tour ye mentioned. Why don't ye bring Mister Sveigder along. I'm sure he knows this city as well if not a whole lot better then ye and can answer a few uv me technical questions."

That said, he waited for Roger and Sveigder to take the lead and followed them back to the transport circle.

* * *

An hour after they had left the Gatebay Control Deck, the two humans and the Vanir were strolling down a corridor in one of the lower and more expansive levels of the Tower. So far Kincaid had been given a quick showing of various labs and technical related rooms, as well as officers and personelle areas. Since each level downwards from the GateBay got larger and larger (the tower was pretty much a cone, after all) There got to be more and more to see, and thus Roger and Sveigder would just give quick descriptions of a general area's functions.

Near the midpoint of the building, Roger and his Vanir friend led Kincaid into a large bay that rivaled the Gatebay so far above. Like the other room, this one had a large opening in the wall that showed the city beyond but it wasn't closed off with transparent metal. This was actually open.

And in cradles lining both walls of the bay, were about a dozen and a half puddle jumpers with empty cradles which could allow at least that much more.

Blinking, the Giant slowly walked towards one of the lower cradles that had one of the small vessels held in it. "I dinnae remember reading that they 'ad Jumpers." Kincaid said, reaching out to run fingers along the burnished copper colored hull.

Roger and Sveigder walked up behind the officer. "Well, sir, we just discovered this ourselves lately." He admitted. "We have only recently awoken the Vanir who handled the Jumpers and their other vehicles."

Kincaid quickly turned around. "Other vehicles?" he asked. "What other vehicles?"

The Vanir stepped up to plate on that one. "The city has approximately sixty of the 'Puddle Jumpers', as your people so novely call them." He said, then he pulled what looked like a small alien PDA from his pocket and thumbed on the screen. "We also have 24 Valkyrie and a few dozen other multipurpose small transports."

Kincaid nodded slowly then frowned. "Whut is a Valkyrie?" he asked, confused.

"Uhm, that would be one." Sveigder said as he pointed to the bay door.

Above the city and far out near the edge of the stygian sized cavern a small flash of light blinked. Kincaid squinted at it and realized it was a small vessel moving at fairly high speed, weaving in and out of buildings that had yet come online. As it got closer Kincaid tried to make out some definition but couldn't. At least not until it suddenly flew into the bay and in an amazing display of breaking came to a complete stop, hovering over their heads a dozen feet or so.

Kincaid marveled at the vessel above him. Slightly longer then a Puddle Jumper, the copper colored vessel's design was greatly different. Yes, it was still cylindrical, but it tapered from the front to the rear much more sharply and was more narrow. It had winged that folded out from the rear where the engines were, then spread out in a way similar to a Japanese fan. The Cockpit had only two seats, and not side by side but one behind the other. The rest of the vehicle seemed given over to engine, armor, and weapons.

It was like some bird of pray, hovering there almost silently.

"Amazin…" Kincaid whispered.

Grinning, Roger nodded as the vehicle silently hovered backwards, armor and wings folding and the length shorting as the vessel telescoped itself to a shorter length before finally resting in a cradle.

"Yes. She's a beauty." He admitted. "She is gatetravel capable as well. We almost called her a GateFighter but General O'Niel was against that name for some reason. So we kept the Vanir name for it."

Nodding, Kincaid started walking towards the fighter as it's hood slid back and the two occupants inside started to climb out. One, a Vanir technician who seemed a bit older then Sveigder, and the other human who must have been a pilot since they wore an air force style helmet.

Since the pilot was faced away from the approaching trio, they couldn't tell much about them beyond the fact that they appeared to be extrememly tall. In fact they were probably less then five inches shorter then the Colonel himself. The pilot reached up and pulled off their helmet, long locks of black hair sliding free and down their back.

The pilot was a woman.

Kincaid came to a quick stop, as did his companions, as the Amazonian pilot finished talking with the Vanir Technician.

"She handled great, Snaer." The woman pilot said. Her voice was deep for a female. And her accent was hard to place. Like a cross between British and Mediterranean.

The Vanir, Snaer, was more wrinkled then Sveigder and a whole lot shorter. Not much Taller then an Asguard. "Of course she handled great." He replied in a gruffly musical voice that made him seem like a crotchety olf mechanic. "I repaired her, didn't I?"

The Woman laughed and flicked some hair away as she turned, though the rest of her hair stayed I place and covered one of her eyes always. "Yeah yeah. You did. Now if you'll excuse me, Snaer, I got to write up my report on the…" She stopped as she saw the three newcomers standing there. "Oh, I thought you had left when I landed." She said slowly as she eyed them. It seemed she knew Roger and the Vanir but for a mere second it seemed she knew Kincaid as well.

Roger stepped foreward and smiled to the woman. "Doctor, it looked like you enjoyed yiurself." He said as he offered her his hand. She took it and smiled, but the smile didn't seem to reach her eyes. "I was giving the Colonel a tour and thought he'd appreciate seeing the ships. Colonel? I want you to meet our resident theoretical engineer and trained civilian pilot Doctor Rowen…"

"Rowen Milionis." The Giant said. His mismatched eyes were locked on her single showing one. He had been very silent and almost as unreadable as the Doctor when she had turned and spotted him. Slowly he offered his hand to her. "I 'ave heard many great thing about you." He said slowly, almost tentatively.

Before Roger could reveal his surprise at the Colonel, Rowen's stony face hardened even more, almost becoming a frown. She stared at Kincaid a moment and crossed her arms beneath her breasts, her blue eye becoming cold like ice.

"Well I guess that's where we differ, Colonel _Ezekiel_ Kincaid." She said in a voice that was like a snakes hiss. The hate that was evident in it made everyone, even the snarky Vanir Snaer, step back in surprise. "Because I have never heard _anything_ great about you." She snarled and turned away to grab her helmet.

Roger quickly stepped foreard, between the amazon and the very stricken looking giant. "Rowen?" he asks, in a strangly familiar and friendly way. It seemed he knew her on a first name basis. "What has..?"

The tall olive coloured woman twirled around and looked sharply at the Archeologist. Her hair flailed and for a moment both eyes could be seen.

Mismatched eyes. Blue and Golden brown.

"Not now, Roger." She said lowly. She eyed everyone else, though blantantly ignore Kincaid who just stood there, unable to look away from her. "I.. Have to go." She finally murmured and without giving a reason walked out quickly.

When the doors had closed behind her, Snaer reached up and rubbed his bare and wrinkled head. "In the few weeks I have known her, I have never seen Rowen act that way."

Sveigder nodded in agreement and Roger turned around to frown at Kincaid. "I am so sorry, sir." the archeologist blurted. "I… She 'ad no right ta act that way. I will speak to Doctor Arliss when he gets back…

But Kincaid waved that off. His normally copper toned skin was pale and he shook his head. "Nay, lad." He whispered. "Dinnae say anything. She 'ad _every _right ta say whut she did."

Everyone stared at him. "How can you say that?" Sveigder asked.

Kincaid regarded each and every one of them, his eyes haunted and filled with undeniable guilt.

"Because.. She be me daughter."


	19. Chapter 19

_**Author's Note:** Hey all. Been a while since I updated. More storms and such coming m way, or at least near by. But I finally got out a chapter. As usual I need to apologize for a few things. One, this chapter is a bit shorter then most the others. Two, the spelling since my main character, the scotsman, speaks a LOT in this one so I had to Scottish-ify it. Three, just sorry in general ;) Please enjoy and again thanks for all the reviews. And not long now until I start pepping this storry up in a new direction._

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Chapter 19**

Kincaid's office was above the GateBay in the Central Spire, and a level below the observation deck. His large window presented him with an awesome view of the entire Northwestern quadrant of the Vanir City. The subterranean metropolis's artificial sun had dimmed and changed it's light quality until it almost mimicked a full moon. Through the vista below he say colored lights of the city that was slowly coming back to life around him.

He cradled the snifter of Port, from the few bottles he had 'smuggled' into Vaneheim with him and sighed deeply.

Jack O'Neil sat in one of the cousinly chairs that had come with the office, holding his own snifter and regarding his friend casually. While he did not know Kincaid as well as he wished it was clear what was on the giant's mind.

"Wanna talk about it?" the General asked, and then sipped from his glass. He wasn't a wine man, no, but Port had it's ups that was for sure.

The Colonel looked into his mug, frowning slightly. "About whut?" he asked, swirling the dark amber liquid around the glass.

Jack sighed. "Zeke, It's not a secret. Cairn's told Daniel about you and that Doctor. And ever since I got here you have been brooding."

"I dinnae brood, Jack."

"Bullcrap! So spill it."

Sighing once more, Zeke stared out at the beautiful city which was now under his protection. "I wuz twenty one." He said, quietly, peering out as if into the mists of the past. "I'd been in tha SAS fuir a few years, more then I shoulda been anyways since I lied bout me age. Anyway, me squad was ordered to work with Interpol in a terrosrist matter in Greece, their government 'avin called us fuir 'elp. Some cult ur something."

"Anyways, Interpol acted as tha liason between our SAS Anti-Terrorist squad and tha local authorities. Tha liason themselves was a greek woman names Helaena. Probably a three uir four years older then me. We quickly took ta each other, if ye catch me drift. God… so long ago now. Anyways after we took down tha cult and got out their 'ostages we all went out and there wuz this 'uge party… and one thing led ta another and…"

Jack ahhhed, knowingly, and nodded. "And the one eye scotsman got to go explore the greek caverns."

Blushing faintly the giant nodded. "Aye.. But it was more then that. I spent an entire few weeks there afterwards, usin me accumulated leave. She wuz.. she wuz the most passionate woman I 'ad eve met. Lord, I wuz so afraid I'd 'urt 'er but she always wanted more. More love. More sex. More /us/. She was an unquenchable fire…"

"So what happened?" Jack asked.

"Me duty appened.. and 'ers. We parted with promises of luv.. ta keep in touch. But we didn't. Oh, I tried but I was never able ta reach 'er.. not fuir a year. And then I discovered I never would."

Inha;ing deeply Jack said nothing. He just stared at his friend, letting him continue.

"Some bastard drug cartel got 'er… She wuz wurkin undercover it seemed. And the bastards killed 'er… brutally. I tried o get more information, almost insane with grief.. But all that they could tell me is that she was survived by 'er parents.. and new born daughter."

"Tha timin was right… Nine months after we parted she 'ad a baby girl. And she died three months after that, tha child in tha grandparents care. I tried ta contact them, ta tell em who was.. but 'er parents were traditional and tha bairn was born outta wedlock.. And they blamed me fuir that and the only thing that made it worse wuz me bein a foreigner."

"After that I buried meself in me work. Spent years tryin ta forget Helaena and tha baby. But I couldn't. I just couldn't. I knew whut it wuz like, Jack, 'avin no parents. I wuz born ta a whore in Gloscow who overdosed when I wuz four years old. I grew up in orphanages and foster homes. And while tha baby 'ad 'er granparents.. I knew 'ow bad it would be with no real father or mother."

"After a while I made a few contacts in tha intelligence community and found out where me child and 'er grandparents lived. So I tried to visit, tried ta see me daughter.. But 'er grandmother threatened ta call tha police if I ever came around. So I left.. but not before that grandfather gave me a picture uv 'er and said if I wrote he would try ta get that latters ta 'er.."

"And I did write. Every month. Fuir many years. And almost every letter I wrote came back. Marked 'Return to Sender'. I tried so ard, Jack. I never stopped writin in 'ope that one letter, just one, would get through ta 'er. But it never 'appened."

"So I kept tabs on 'er frum afar. Friends in the Greek intelligence agencies sending me a tidbit 'ere and there. A newspaper clippin about 'ow she graduated at thirteen. On 'er scholarship ta Oxford at fifteen. Getting 'er doctorate at twenty. She made me so proud but I was never able ta tell 'er that."

Jack looked away from Kincaid, trying to keep his own composure. He could hear the pain in the giant's voice, the emptiness at a life lived alone. Of his failings. And Jack understood in his own way, having lost a child. But what made it more heart wrenching is that Jack's loss was final. He knew that. But Zeke's daughter lived on, untouchable.. until now.

Zeke sniffled and drained his glass, then wiped at his lips as he walked to his desk and slumped into the chair. "I stopped trying, ye know." He whispers. "After I retired I spent a time tryin ta initiate a meetin with her.. but the one time I got through she refused. She said some.. some things that were terrible and probably true… And I gave up. That's why I left fuir the most desolate place I could find. Ta find what little peace wuz left fuir me. And when I was reactivated… I thought maybe the change back tat ha military would be good fuir me. I never expected ta see 'er, Jack."

Nodding, Jack reached across the desk and grabbed the bottle, refilling both their glasses before sitting back once more and looking out the window. "If I had known, Zeke, I would have made sure she wasn't sent here. I still could, you know."

Zeke quickly shook his head. "No, Jack." He said quickly. "She 'as earned this. I would never think of taking something like this away frum 'er.. regardless of our past. She is an engineer, one of the best if what I 'ave 'eard is correct. NASA, Tha European Space Agency, dozens of private space related companies.. They all wanted 'er but this.. this place is where she is needed. I will just 'ave ta be as professional as I can with 'er."

Jack shook his head. "Well I pray you both get what you need." The general told his colonel friend. "I really do."

Zeke sighed and nodded. "Thanks Jack." He whispered, and once more looked out into his new city… and wondered which light far below was his daughter.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Rowena leaned against the frame of the door that led to the patio, looking up at that glowing central spire. The tall woman shook her head, her mind filled with many confusing thoughts that seemed so close to over whelming her.

Finally she pushed away and walked into the house proper. Her residence was a nice place, designed and built by the Vanir dozens of millennia ago yet they still seemed so new. Their design was soft and not at all utilitarian, a difference she had discovered between them and their modern decadents. If she had to place an architectural style that It resembled she would have to say it reminded her almost of old Greek style.

The house had four large bedrooms and thus she shared it with roommates. They still had crates of stuff they hadn't unpacked yet.. but they would, when they had time.

Slipping into her room she walked over to her largest duffle bag. Unzipping it she rooted around for a few long minutes until she withdrew a cigar box. Flipping it open she stared at the contents, her eyes large and watery.

Pictures and news clippings and old letters from old friends and lovers. Some photos of her grandparents and extended family. A gold metal from a sports day as a child.

But what grabbed her attention was the two objects at the very bottom. One was a simple ring made of silver. A promise ring. And the other was a photo that was older then her.

Two people. One a giant of a man with mismatched eyes, smiling goofily as his arms were wrapped around a petite and olive skinned woman as they stood in front of a fountain. The two seems as different as night and day but it was so clear by the glow in their eyes that they were in love.

Rowen sniffled once, running a hand down the photo, tracing her mother's face tenderly before staring at the large and very handsome young man who held her."

"Why?" she asked, whispering in a voice thickened with tears.

"Why did you love her so much and not me."


	20. Chapter 20

**_Author's Note:_ **_Yay, Katrina missed me! Well, mostly. Stillhad some heavy winds and rains. I feel so bad at the moment about all those people east of me. My prayers, and hopefully everyone elses, goes out to them._  
_So here it is. I have made it to Chapter 20. Wow, never thought I would. You guy have been a constant source of motivation with your great reviews and critiques. Please, keep them up. The more reviews I get the faster (and hopefully better) each chapter will come out._

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**Chapter 20**

Three days later the Human and Vanir heads of Vaneheim Base sat across from each other at the briefing room table one level above the gatebay. Colonel Kincaid sat next to Doctor Malcolm Arliss, the Brazilian archeologist and diplomat who had discovered the Sapphire Globe in the first place which had led General O'Neill and SG-1 to Mars in the first place. Arliss was the civilian counterpoint to Kincaid's military presence and, truthfully, he didn't have any problems with that. This wasn't a purely military facility and Kincaid, unlike many warhawks, understood the value of a balanced command.

Across from them sat their Counterparts. While Kincaid and Arliss had much power within Vaneheim they easily conceded that the city was the Vanir's to control and that it was the aliens generocity that allowed their presence in the first place.

Bestla sat in her chair, poised and regal as always. The Vanir woman was the highest ranking official with the Vanir's Society. As Guardian of her people, she held a spot similar to a queen or princess within a democratic monarchy and she truly seemed the part.

Beside the eerily beautiful alien woman sat Kvasir, the elected representative of the Vanir government. Where Bestla would, in a way, represent a royal presence, the short and stocky Vanir make dressed in the dark silver robes would be similar to a Prime Minister.

The four beings skimmed over their papers and data-tablets, confering back on forth on priorities for both the city and the base that it now housed. They had been doing so for days now, hammering out policy, determining resource dispersment and acquisition. How they would integrate their activities.

They didn't always agree, truth be told, but they all worked as best they could to find compromises. And now, after working long hours together, they had almost finished their task. At least for now, since things would be sure to change and grow over time.

"Director Kvasir," Kincaid said as he flipped to one of the final notes on his to-do list. "It 'as come ta me attention that since flight on tha surface will be extremely limited, since we dinna want sateliites pickin ye up and blowin tha little secret we 'ave 'ere, we could possibly put a number of yuir Puddlejumpers ta good use fuir other things."

Kvasir raises that hairless brow and sat back in his chair, interlacing his stubby fingers against his chest and regarding the human giant with intrest. "How so?" He asked, wanting to here Kincaid's proposal."

Kincaid tapped a few buttons on his Data-tablet, interfacing it with the table's holographic unit, and a number of diagrams appear suddenly above them. "As ye can see." He said, pointing to the freefloating photons, "I've been playin around with a few ideas and I thought that per'aps we could pre load a number of tha jumpers with different 'kits', equipment fuir quick responses ta specialized needs. A few as quick troop carriers, loaded with weapons and gear. A few others as medical support. Others loaded fuir recon, or Search and Rescue.." He trailed off.

Kvasir turned to look at Bestla, as if asking what she thought. The Vanir woman nodded, smiling faintly as she then regarded Kincaid. "That is a very good idea, Colonel Kincaid." She admitted. "If you give us a copy of the different kits, as you call them, I am sure we can have our engineers and technicians prepare a number of the Jumpers to your specifications."

Arliss nodded as well. "Yeah, good though, Colonel. Of course, we could also come up with few of these kits for non miltary purposes.  
Kincaid chuckles. "Aye, Doctor. I didna leave ye out. I 'ave a few in tha list fuir ye. One or two set aside fuir archeological purposes, a couple fuir other scientific endeavours, and others fuir engineering and repair. Tha way I look at it, we wilna be doin _quite_ as much exploring from 'ere as they will be frum tha SGC, but if they get inta trouble we need ta be ready ta assist."

"That is very prudent, Colonel Kincaid." Kvasir acknowledged.

Still smiling, Kincaid shut down his display and leaned back heavily in the chair, interlacing his fingers behind his head. "So.. Thats it frum me. Anything else we need ta discuss?"

The doctor shook his head. "Nope. I'm good here." Malcolm said as he straightend his notes. "All my people are ready for business to start."

Bestla chuckled faintly at the human's metaphor. "As are our people, Doctor Arliss." she told him in her happily musical voice. "We have been inactive for so long, it is thrilling that we are once again involved with the rest of the Galaxy."

Kvasir sat straighter and nodded his bare, slightly elongated head. "Yes, the city grows more alive every day, as do our people. And while we are not all out of the Hibernaculum, it is time for us to start looking ahead and get working for a better tommorrow."

Everyone agreed with that statement.

"Oh, one thing before we conclude this meeting." Kincaid said as he reached beneath his chair and pulled out a pizza box sized package. The others gave the giant their undivided attention, staring at the bundle.

"As ye know, The Atlantis mission 'ad it's own uniforms." he continued as he slowly undid the clasps on the box. "So I 'ad tha General get somethin whipped up fuir me. Now we dinna need ta wear it, it ain't mandatory. Especially fuir ye people, Madam Bestla, though I 'ave noticed ore and more of yuir younger people takin a fancy to our fashions." he said with a chuckle as he thought of Sveigder and his jeans.

He flipped open the box and turned it around so that the others could see. One by one they leaned over and looked into the box at what the Colonel had created for them. One by one they hmmm'd and scrutinized the contents. And for a few moments everyone was quiet until Bestla spoke up, a grin on her beautific face.

"Does it come in silver?"

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The staff of Vaneheim Base Control ran back and forth between their duties, putting the final touches on their work. Human and Vanir alike scurried between their stations on the Gatebay's large control deck, or to and from the plethora of offices throughout the spire. Last minute checks were being completed on the systems that were an amalgam of Vanir, Ancient, and Modern Human technologies.

And at exactly 0900 hours the teleport circle off to the side of the deck flashed and five people stepped out onto the floor.

The crowd of technicians and officers and scientists became quickly hushed as they stared at the arrivals, standing straighter.

Bestla, Guardian Mother of Vaneheim, was the first to step out of the circle. The tall and states alien woman no longer wore her usual silver catsuit but was instead attired in something completely different.

The uniform was three pieces and made from durable materials. A pair of black slacks, not to loose nor too tight, stylishly cut somewhere between proffesional and casual. A dark grey long sleeved jacket of similar design, like a cross between a sports coat and jumpsuit jacket fitted over a Silvery-white turtleneck shirt.

The next out of the circle was Doctor Arliss and his assistant Roger Cairns. Both wore the same uniform as Bestla, but their turtlenecks were blue a creamy brown color.

Finally the last pair stepped out of the circle. Their uniforms were a bit different. Instead of slacks and a shirt they wore a camouflaged jumpsuit but they did wear a vest of the same color and a similar (though a more rugged) cut as the others wore.

But all of them shared one thing in common. On their left shoulder was a patch. It bore the same stylized chevron design as the SGC's, but instead of the symbol for Earth it bore the zodiac symbol for Ares, a compromise between the Humans and the Vanir as Mars, or Aresia which would _become_ Ares, was a common derivative. And arching over the badge was the words, in a script that was stylized after runic shapes, _**Vaneheim**_.

Kincaid ran his hands down the sides of his new uniform, smoothing out the imaginary wrinkles. He stood proudly as his people all looked onward, most seeming awed and inspired by the group and their uniforms, as if they realized this was the final little touch that made this entire endeavour more real.

Grinning at the gawkers, Kincaid leaned over to the shorter man who stood beside him and chuckled. "Ye cut a fine figure, Airman." he told his new assistant, freshly arrived less then an hour previous, as he started to lead them to the master control consoles, "Now ain't ye 'appy ye accepted me offer?"

Airman First Class Dyson Weiss, newly promoted, could only nod as he slowly followed his new CO. The young man fidgeted uncomfortably in his new gear, not used to the design as of yet, and could only help but give Kincaid a weak smile.

"Yes'sir." he quietly said as he tugged at the jumpsuit's collar. "Though I am still a little.. confused as to why you want me here. I mean, I am grateful for your request to have me as your personal assistant and everything but.. why me?"

Kincaid chuckled, nodding to everyone politely as he passed them, but leveling his voice for Weiss alone. "Ya mean besides making sure that General O'Neill didna kill ya accidently?" he asked. This earned the Colonel a blush and a reluctantly embarrassed nod from the younger man. "Because, lad... something told me it was tha right thing ta do. I read yuir file. yuir a bright young man, dedicated, and ye'll go far. So why not 'elp out a little bit."

Weiss frowned slightly, still not understanding, but before he could reply Kincaid cut him off with a shake of his head.

"Just trust me, lad." He said and then, stepping behind the console with Bestla and Malcolm, "Now ye just stand there next ta Roger and watch tha fireworks begin."

With everyone in their place, Kincaid stepped up and cleared his throat. Every single member of the team, military and civilian, human and alien alike, straightened up.

"The time 'as come," Kincaid began, his deep voice resonating through the control deck, "After so many weeks uv 'ard work and dedication fuir ye ta see the end results of yuir perseverance." He stepped back and let Malcolm take his place.

"In such a short time we have proven not only that we can work together as a team to complete any given task," The dark brazillian scientist told the crowd. "But that we could band together, two completely different species, to strive for a future goal of enlightenment and protection of our peoples."

Next it was Bestla's turn. The tall Vanir guardian smiled that beatific smile of hers and nodded to everyone. "I have not been so proud of any accomplishment in my life. We spent millenia asleep, the galaxy passing us by, and now the descendants of our old protectors and allies have given is a future to not just look foreward to, but to help build. Together. As equals."

Finally, Kincaid stepped foreward once again and hushed everyone who, at the end of their remarks, had broken out into prideful cheer. Smiling, the giant waited until everyone was sufficiently quiet and held his hand over a large blue plunger-like button set into a ceremonial podium.

"Aye. We 'ave a future ta start building people. And I 'ave faith in every single one of ye. So, by tha power vested in me and me two colleagues by The Leaders of the Earth Allies, I pronounce Vaneheim Base..."

His hand pressed down on the button and suddenly the always dim Control Deck lit up with tracks of blue and white lights, breathing a new life into the amalgam of old and new technologies.

Kincaid grinned.

"...Open fuir Business!"

And the crowd went wild.


	21. Chapter 21

_**Author's Note:** Hey everyone. It's been a long while, I know and I apologize deeply. Too many hurricanes and life changes basically stole all my creativity and I have been trying hard to get it back. I hate writers block. _

_But I still got reviews. I still got emails. And I thank everyone of you who actually reads my stories from the bottom of my heart for sticking with me through all this. You have been so great for me. Hopefully I can pay you back by getting this story out quicker and with the same quality (and more so) then I have already given._

_**Story Note:** Okay, by now you have noticed that My Avalon seems markedly different from the one in the newest season of SG1. There is a very good reason for that. I started writing this LONG before the latest season. And while I am finally starting to enjoy the whole Ori thing a bit more, it will not be happening in this SG-1 Alternative universe I have created. So relax, enjoy, and let me make a mess in my corner of this sandbox. :)_

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Chapter 21 - Interlude 2

The city continued to burn.

The city had been pummeled for days on end by the silver slivers from the dark between the stars. Mile upon mile of land surrounding the great city of Avalon lay in ruins. Entire crops withered by the heated impact blasts. Herds of cattle laid to waste, the tangy sweet stench of meat wafting in the breeze.

But a day ago the bombardment had stopped, the storm of strange meteors spent, giving the great city a needed breather. Time to count and collect it's dead and to mourn.

And while every life lost was sacred and missed, not a single man, woman, nor child missed anyone more then the Blood of the Scion.

The great families whom had protected the empire with their lives for countless generations was now gone. They had outlived the Imperial family itself long ago, taking it's place. Not one single man nor woman among them ruled the people, instead governing by council.

But now they were all gone. Their great tower, a symbol of strength and resolve and honor among the Citizens of the Avalonian Empire was now nothing more then a burned out cinder.

The bodies, what remained of them, had been pulled from the rubble already, rolled in silks and placed in the sacred crypts. But the crypts had never been meant to hold so many, having been completely filled within a day when it had been meant not to be filled for centuries or longer.

The last of The Blood, Scioness Nikiski Noelani, stood among the hallowed bodies of her ancestors. Shrouded in the glimeirng black robes of mourning, she walked among each of the silken mummies, touching each bundle reverently. Tears ran down her cheeks in rivulets.

"I am so sorry." she whispered to her sisters. Her brothers. Her aunts and uncles and cousins. She walked from one body to another, offering them a silent prayer and a vow of vengeance.

And at the end of the precession of the dead was a final body. More intact then any of the others it sat on a throne of wrought iron. The corpse, draped as all the others, sat almost regally, instead of being laid down, and about it's shoulders was a cloak of magenta. The ancient Throne of the Dead. And behind it, seemingly carved into the wall, embossed in white and gold marble laminate, marble was the Eye of Tir'na'nog, symbolizing the forgotten passage to the land of Youth.

Nikiski's legs could no longer hold her. She trembled and fell to her knees and sobbed deeply. She clenched her fists and slammed the against the floor, screaming wildly and angrily.

"Father," she screamed, the tears taking flood down her stained cheeks, "I vow on my life that you will be avenged. I vow on my soul I will not rest until every vestige of the Nemesii has been cleansed from our worlds"

But the dead Scion did not speak. The dead Scion did not answer his only living daughter's vow. Because the dead do not use words to answer those who beseech them. They answer in other ways.

Or at least this was the legend that had been passed down through the ages. Very few believed that the dead could answer from beyond the Tapestry of Life. Very few believed, truly, that the dead had any true sway on the threads that bind the living.

No one truly believed any more.

Until now.

As Nikiski wept at her fathers feet, punching the ground until her small fists began to bleed, something that had never once happened in recorded history.

The Dead spoke back.

The Earth rumbled beneath the Scioness, the great Crypt shaking gently at first, then more violently. Bodies, stacked one upon another, fell from their slabs onto the floor. Ancient marble, so sturdy even through the great bombardment from space, quivered and shook, slaking fine dust from it't invisible cracks.

Tearstained, Nikiski tried to push herself up, looking every which way to see what what was causing this new disaster. Were the Nemesii attacking again? Were they finally returning to give the final death blow that would, once for all, erase the First City of the Avalonian people from the maps?

Guards ran into the Crypt, their energy lances held close to their sides as they made for their remaining Scion-blooded ward. Already bruised and battered from days of defending the city, be it on the ground or in the skys, they were not going to allow their last pure Blood of the Scion to die.

"Scioness!" The lead guardsman cried. "We must leave! NOW! A Nemesii ship approaches! We must get you to a safe place!"

Nikiski, in shock from this revelation, quickly braced one of the slabs, now bereft of a body, and pulled her self up. "Is it attacking already?" he asks, confused.

"No, Ma'am!" the guardsman told her as he came to her side, taking her elbow in his hand. His Armour, all black and gold, shone in the dim light. "But They will be soon. They are coming towards the crypt."

The Scioness stiffened. This wasn't right. None of this was right. "Guard. If they aren't attacking what is causing this?" he asks asked as the shaking got more violent, the walls seeming rattle and threatening to shake to pieces.

And, as if to answer her question, she saw that the dead had indeed spoken back to her. For this wasn't some portent of imminent death caused by their ancient enemy. This was something else all together.

The Scioness and the Guards-men watches as, behind the Throne of the Dead, the embossed Eye of Tir'na'nog cracked. But it did not crack into peices. The white and gold marble crumbled, slowly, peice by peice from the carving.

Which wasn't a carving.

White and gold gave away to dark Silver and grey. Each peice that fell from the Eye revealed something they never believed or even had any clue existed. The Great Eye slaked off it's covering, bit by bit. Symbols appeared with in inner tract. And the Arrows, interspersed around the ring, seemed to hum.

Light cut through the darkness as that inner tract lit up wiuth a trace of light that travelled the inner rim, highlighting unknown lines and dots quickly until it finally stopped on one.

And one of those arrows, now devoid of it's ancient laminate, made a lound clinking sound and lit up in a bright emerald green.

And Nikiski just stood there, the tears starting anew as she watched the Eye of Tir'Na'Nog come back to life. But they were not tears of sorrow. They were something entirely different.

Because she was smiling. Because she felt hope.

Because the dead had actually answered.

And the inner tract of light moved again, the opposite direction this time, quicker.. seeking another mysterious symbol.


	22. Chapter 22

**Farthest Stars **

**Chapter 22: Thursday **

**Disclaimer**: Other than being a fan, I have _nothing_ to do with Stargate: Atlantis in _any_ way, shape or form.

**Author's Note**: It's been, what, almost 3 and a half years? I owe everyone an apology. between a hurricane, divorce, moving, a new relationship, the birth of my first child and now my second on the way I can easily say I have been busy. I thank all the people who actually keep reading this story and leaving me comments and I especially thank Evilclone whom I know is fed up with me :D I hope to start writing more now once again and don't hurt me too much if this first new chapter in years isn't up to snuff..

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

It was Next Thursday.

Again.

Daniel growled under his breath as he stared at the calendar on his desk. Every week for the past month there was an X scribbled in felt pen on Thursday. And when he reached out and turned the calendar back a month, and another, each week followed suit.

Three months of Next Thursdays.

The memory, while not infuriating him, still didn't sit right with him. Jack had promised, after all. He had promised, right in front of a room full of people, that Next Thursday they would start planning recon missions for the Six other Cities of the Ancients. Everyone had heard him. Everyone understood plain English. Well, most people there did at least.

But somehow Next Thursday kept being pushed to the next - _Next_ Thursday. For almost three whole damned months.

Well not this Thursday. No sir. Uh uh. Nope. Nyet. Nein. Nada.

The irate archaeologist pushed himself away from his desk and, grabbing his favourite mug, walked straight to the coffeemaker and filled it to the brim. When he was satisfied he was properly prepared for his mission he turned on his heel and marched right out the door, moving down the hallway towards the General's office.

A man with a mission. That was him.

Minutes later, he found himself standing at O'Neill's door, staring at the placard bearing the Generals name and rank. Daniel had ran through at least a few dozen possible scenarios in his head on the walk down here. Hell, he had been running scenarios in his head for weeks. But now that he was actually standing here, actually ready to confront his friend, he was at an absolute loss as to what he was going to say.

Not that such a thing had ever stopped him before. Especially where Jack was concerned.

So taking a deep breath and clutching his mug as if it were the most important thing in his universe besides rocks and Ancient cities spread across the known universe, which it pretty much was and anyone be damned if they told him otherwise, he turned the handle with his free hand and walked into the office without even knocking.

That would prove to Jack that he was serious.

At least it would if Jack was there.

Daniel frowned as he found the office completely empty, save for the huge pile of reports on the desk. Actually, it was more then huge. It was almost phenomenal.

Which pretty much explained why the General wasn't anywhere to be seen.

Cursing to himself, Daniel took a slug of his coffee (burning the roof of his mouth in the process which prompted even more cursing) and stepped back out into the hall, closing the door behind him. Where the hell could Jack be, he asked himself in his mind. Damnit all. It was just like Jack to be hiding when Daniel needed to ream him out.

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

It was his favourite place in the entire mountain.

Sure, he loved the armoury, with it's tantalizing selection of small arms, big arms, and arms that could make small planets go boom. Yes, he liked the gym where Teal'c handed him his ass in a sparing match on more occasions then he would like to admit. And of course he liked the mess hall, where the cooks prominently displayed slice after slice of rich chocolaty cakes and similar confections for his, uhm, approval.

But no room, in the entirety of Cheyenne mountain, from the upper most floors of NORAD to the very darkest and dankest storage facilities below the SGC's complex did he love more then his private bathroom.

God, now he knew how George Hammond had put up with all his crap over the past ten years. Figuratively and literally.

It wasn't a luxurious bathroom. At least not in the way some people think of private restrooms in, say, hotels or expensive restaurants. There was no maitre dais, nor mints on top of silk towels. There was no boudet or gold handled flusher.

But there was a pile of Hockey magazines, an old Walkman and his brand new shiny red Gameboy DS with its Mariokart game.

And a key that only he had.

Yep! If it hadn't have been for this bathroom, that didn't have a phone or any other way of interrupting him while he was safely locked within doing his business, which was rarely ever that kind of business, he would have surely cracked months ago. All that was missing was a mini-fridge.

Which would be arriving in just under three days.

Being a General was so cool!

Yes, there was nothing that could possibly ruin this moment of perfect peace. Not Walter informing him of another appointment. Not Teal'c asking for a sparring match. Not Carter and her cute techno-babble that made his head spin, among other things. Nope, not a thing at all.

**THUD THUD THUD**

"Jack, open up! I know you're in there."

Well, maybe except that. Maybe he could pretend he wasn't there...

"I said I know you're in there Jack."

No you don't, he thought, he's just guessing.

"Walter told me you're in there. You made him bring you a box of donuts fifteen minutes ago."

O'Neill looked at the box of sweet cake-like confectioneries and sighed. "Traitors." he grumbled as he stood up. "Fine, fine, Daniel. Just gimme a sec to get descent here, will ya?" he asked as he closed the Gameboy and tucked it into his pocket.

Daniel, for all his displeasure at whatever it was (to Jack) he was displeased with, suddenly sounded amused. "Decent? Jack, you've been eating donuts and playing Mario Kart. It's not like you were really going to the…"

*FLUSH*

Daniel took a quick step back from the doorway, urking under his breath, the door opened and Jack stepped out, wiping his hands with a paper towel before grabbing the box of donuts off the sink.

"Want one?" The General asked, smirking.

Daniel made a face, suspicious that Jack was pulling his leg... Then again, why chance it. This was Jack O'Neill after all. His sense of humour was known to be… less than tactful. So the archaeologist shook his head. "No, uhm… I'm fine thanks." he assured his friend. "Look, Jack... we really need to talk."

Jack took a donut and started walking down the hallway towards his office, nibbling on a white frosted cake donut. "Yes we do." he admitted, not bothering to wait to see if his younger friend was following. "Have you tried one of these? Not as good as the old ones, wouldn't you agree. We should order from Krispy Kreme, don't ya think?"

A few quick steps and Daniel was alongside Jack, grimacing. "No - no, I'm not talking about donuts." he says, getting annoyed. "Though… Yeah, you had better start ordering from them again. Teal'c is complaining something awful. No - WAIT... Jack, I need to talk with you about something important."

"Donuts are important. What else could you need to talk about?"

"Oh, maybe about the exploration of a certain lost city in another Galaxy."

This brought Jack to a halt. "I told you, we can't spare you on Atlantis."

"Jack, one of the OTHER cities. You promised me months ago we could try to contact one of the other cities using the Vanneheim gate, remember? Every Thursday you say NEXT Thursday and frankly, I am getting tired of it."

Jack ahhh'd, his eyes finally lighting up in understanding. "I see." he said and quickly turned around, causing Daniel to step past him a few feet before doing a double take and then running back, Jack was already heading the opposite direction, towards the control centre.

"Jack! Where the hell are you going?"

"You have a meeting in thirty minutes with the Vanneheim people." he called back. "Grab an overnight bag."

"But – But..."

Stopping at the base of the stairs that lead up into the command room, Jack turned around and raised a brow at his friend. "You're right, Daniel." he said, "We put it off long enough… besides, I got confirmation from the Pentagon this morning."

Daniel just stood there, looking confused and shocked all rolled into one as he stared as his friend. Then finally, he crossed his arms and regarded Jack with a hard glare. "You could have told me this before I let loose with this entire tirade," he pointed out.

The General could just shrug and smile. "Where would be the fun in that?" he asked and disappeared into the control room.

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

"So, explain it ta me one more time, how it works?"

Roger Cairns sighed under his breath but continued to smile at the bases Military leader. The smaller Scottish scientist nursed a cup of the strong black coffee the Americans favoured while the much larger Scottish soldier sipped his steaming Green Tea.

Somehow both Scots, and a few of the other personnel per originating from the British Isle, had 'confiscated' a small cafe like building across the street from the base of the Central Tower.

Its original owners having been some of the Vanir who had actually left the solar system at the same time of the ancients to become the direct descendants of the modern day Asgard, the newly awakened aliens had gratefully allowed the humans to convert the storefront-like space into an actual cafe where they could partake in a centuries old tradition.

Tea Time…

Being much younger then the Colonel, and many of the other Brits, Scots and Irish on base, Rogers wasn't as traditional in that he drank tea. He complained it gave him a headache. But it was the act of tea time itself, not the actual drinking of tea, that was important. Though he was surprised how his breaks here had turned into a daily tradition of drinking with one of the most powerful people in Vanneheim. Their conversations, for the past few weeks, had meandered through dozens of topics. But today's topic was by far the most… interesting.

"Well..." Roger began, setting down his coffee and getting comfortable in the chair, "I need ta remind you that I am not /that/ kind uv scientist, Colonel. Maybe you should wait until Colonel Carter returns… or maybe Doctor McKay when he arrives later today.

Kincaid waved that off with a snort. "Lad, yuir still a 'elluvalot smarter then me on /anything/ regardin' tha' Stargate. I dinna need a technical breakdown ta tha Nith degree." he said. "I understand, sorta, how tha basics uv tha gate's workins... I just don't understand 'ow this 'switch' works."

The young Scotsman ahhh'd and nodded, understanding now. "I see." he said, grinning. "Well remember the rest of us, even with the Vanirs' help, have only just gotten the gist down so bare with me."

"Okay the way a Stargate works, usually, is you dial seven symbols. Six of them are the intersecting X, Y, and Z coordinates of another Stargate. And the seventh is the point of Origin symbol. When you dial the seven symbols on the DHD it sends a subspace signal to those coordinates and 'rings' it. If there is another Stargate there able to receive the 'ring' it automatically answers the 'ring' like an answering machine, the two gates establish a 'handshake' and Stargate A forces open a wormhole to Stargate b."

The Colonel seemed to be following so far. "So... It's like one 'ouse phoning another." he said, sipping his tea.

Roger grinned. "Exactly. In fact we can keep using that analogy. Think of our galaxy as a city, and each system with a gate like a home."

"Okay, I get it. So that's where tha Eighth chevron comes in?" Kincaid asked slowly. "When yuir calling, say, Atlantis... It's like being in a different city... So ye need ta make a Long distance call. And tha Eighth symbol is... what... tha Long Distance code?"

"Right - You're getting it, sir."

Chuckling, the colonel set down his cup and shook his head. "Well then.. If I am understandin so far, why canna I get tha 'ang uv this nineth symbol thing. The whole Master gate and such."

"Maybe because no one has explained it to you in this phone analogy. So let's see if I can break it down to you. Most solar systems that have gates have only one. Until recently we though our system had only one as well."

"Wait wait wait... We've known about 'avin TWO gates in the system fuir YEARS, Roger."

"No... We've known about two gates on EARTH for years. Think of it as a house that two phones but only one line. You cannot dial out of a house with two phones if one of the phones is being used, right? And when you dial a house with two phones they both ring And who ever picks up their phone first gets the call first. The Russians had a DHD with their gate... They would hook it up to the gate when they were expecting their own teams to call... The DHD would 'pick up the phone' before the SGC's gate. And when they were done they would disconnect the DHD from their gate, essentially making it so that the SGC's gate was the only one able to receive calls the rest of the time... That is why the two gates never interfered with each other.

"Okay, gotchya.. and that is also why ye couldn't call one gate ta another.. They wuir both on Earth.. and when ye call yuirself ye get a busy signal."

"Right. Now we have TWO active gates. Not on Earth but on Earth and Mars. So instead of a house with two phones it's more like... More like a Hotel. When you call a hotel you don't get the specific room right away do you?"

"No, lad. Ye get the operator at tha front desk."

"Right. When you dial a star system with multiple gates on different planets in it the 'call' goes to that systems Primary gate. Once you are there you can call one of the in system gates from it. The Ninth Chevron is sort of like...dialling an extension line. With each other gate in the system being a hotel room's extension. "

Kincaid's mismatched eyes sparkled now. "I see." he mused, stroking his chin in thought. "So... If I wuz on, say, Chulak and wanted ta get ta Vanneheim.. I would have ta gate ta Earth first and frum Earth gate ta 'ere."

Roger smiled broadly. "Very good. You're getting it now. An 'extension' gate, or as we are calling them 'Secondary Gates' can only be accessed from the systems Master gate. We think that is for two reasons. One was probably security. A bottleneck in case an enemy was trying to use the gate to invade an entire system. Secondly, the more probable reason... The six symbol system to define coordinates is great for generalizing a star systems location in the galaxy, but even using the ninth symbol it probably isn't focused enough, on a cosmic scale, to differentiate between multiple gates in a single system from light years away."

"Okay. Makes sense I think." Kincaid mused as he took another sip of coffee. He licked his lips. "So... In multiple gate systems only tha designated Primary gate can be traveled to directly from a gate out uv tha system."

"Yes. But, also like many hotels, in a multiple gate system each gate, or room, can dial out of the system directly. And in the same way a hotel calls out. So both Earth and Mars could, say, gate /to/ Chulak."

"But what I dinnae understand, Roger, is if tha First Gate upstairs is a Master Gate for our galaxy's gate network why is it not tha Primary Gate uv tha System?"

"Well it originally was, Colonel. But when the war with the Phage was nearing it's end and the Ancients figured out they couldn't save Earth they used the First Gate's master protocols over the gate network to transfer Primary status to the Mars gate and then used ships to trade the two gates, Placing the old Mars gate on Earth in Antarctica where the outpost was. Then they hid the First Gate in Vanneheim, along with the repository, under the cloak of the Negatorium field that hid this city. They then removed the First Gate from the gate network as an operational address and set it to standby to control, passively, the Milky Way's gate network's update protocols. This way when the Ancients fled the galaxy the gate system would continue to operate here for any survivors of the war and so they Ancients could return one day, if possible. The First gate remained on standby for half an eon, unknown to any of the Ancients Descendants, only to be reactivated when the Vanir were awoken and found whoever had awoken them worthy of receiving the ancients knowledge."

Sitting back in his chair, Kincaid just let out a long sigh. "Okay... Yeesh, lad. If I 'ad known 'ow deep this conversation was goin ta get I woulda just asked at a meetin upstairs."

Roger shrugged and grinned. "Well, you asked."

"Aye I did. But I guess I needed ta know anyways, whut with this 'timesharing' thing the egg'eads are commin up with.

Roger nodded. The whole concept had come up at a teleconference meeting between Vanneheim, The SGC, the Pentagon and the President himself. With Vanneheim base almost fully operational now, and in many ways a much better platform for certain kinds of Stargate mission support, and with control of enough of the First Gate's protocols to be able to switch the flag on which gate, Earth or Mars, was the primary incoming gate for the Sol system the Joint Chiefs suggested that they switch the primary flag back and forth between the two gates on a timetable designed around specific mission loads depending on which base was more suited to a mission.

"Well, it DOES make sense, sir." the scientist said softly. "With enough housing and labs available in Vanneheim to support a large military AND scientific contingent without having to worry about detection from civilian authorities on earth we are the perfect place to provide support for many initiatives which would be too ungainly or even unsafe to run from the SGC's facility, but close enough to still be in Earths near direct control. The Best uv both worlds."

"Aye, it is. And, of course, Vanneheim is much better suited for launching intra-gate ships. By the way, I am impressed at how the engineers retrofitted tha puddlejumpers with their 'kits' so quickly. We have enough generic and specific mission support from the jumpers to push Gate explorations ten fold if need be, as well"

"Well I think most of the credit goes to Doctor Milionis." the young scientist said quietly, awaiting a negative reaction from the Colonel. He was pleasantly, but quielty, suprised when the remark didn't seem to elicit a bad response.

But instead of seeming melancholy as Kincaid did when someone mentioned his daughter's name around him, he smiled faintly and nodded in agreement if, albeit, wistfully. "Aye, yuir probably right. The report from 'er team also said the Valkyrie puddle-fighters will be all ready by tomorrow afternoon."

"Yes. It seems we are way ahead of schedule."

Kincaid drained the rest of his honey sweetened tea and slowly stood, unfolding himself to his full seven foot two height. "Aye. and speaking uv bein ahead uv schedule, lad, I better be gettin upstairs ta meet our guests when they arrive."

Stealing a glance at his watch, Roger let out an urking sound and quickly drained his own coffee. "Damn, I almost forgot about that. So you think we're operational enough ta back the Seven Cities Initiative?" he asked as he walked over to a bin near a sink and set down his empty mug to be washed with the rest by the afternoons volunteer Barista.

The Colonel followed suite then tugged at his uniform, straightening the camouflaged fabric. "I believe so. It's just a fact finding initiative anyways.. We ain't plannin on sending anyone through yet, like they did fuir Atlantis."

The two Scotsmen headed for the doors, Roger grabbing his tablet PC on the table and Kincaid putting on his beret. "Well that does relieve the stress somewhat." The younger man quipped as they disappeared out onto the street and, finally, into the Central Tower's lobby for the long yet quick ascent to the top.

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

The event horizon flashed closed behind the small group of intergalactic travellers, leaving them to stare in awe at the huge bay which housed the First gate and the massive transparent wall on one side that gave them a view of the Vanir's city. The group of Atlantians by adoption, be they from Earth or one of the worlds within Pegasus, were surprisingly amazed at their reactions to the new location. One would think that after what they had seen and experienced in their own corner of the universe that nothing could really faze them anymore.

It was nice to see that was wrong.

"It's friggin HUGE" Sheppard murmured, turning his tussle haired head left and right, straining to see everything.

Elizabeth couldn't help but cover her smile with her hand, trying to hide her amusement. Beckett didn't even try to hide his own chuckle while Teyla and Ronan seemed their usual near stoic selves.

Rodney on the other hand, just snorted and shrugged.

John shot the Canadian a look. "What? You don't think it's amazing."

"Oh, I'll admit this has a certain… oh I don't know, Je nais ce quois? But really, Sheppard, if you've seen one Ancient city you've seen them all."

"And just how many ancient cities /have/ you seen, Rodney?"

"One. And that's my point."

Beckett rolled his eyes and set down his duffle bag on the platform. "Rodney. This ain't an Ancient city. It's an Asgard city."

"Proto-Asgard, Carson. And with heavy Ancient influences."

"Whutever. The point is it's not goin ta be like Atlantis. Aye, it may have a lot of Old Ancient technology in it but it was built and maintained by tha Vanir."

"With help from the said heavily influential Ancients..."

Before the pair could break into an argument over comparative alien architecture the group was approached by a youngish looking Human in a Vanneheim Soldier's uniform and two Vanir. One in a full Sciences uniform and the other in only the uniform jacket over a black T-shirt and jeans that could have come off the rack from any trendy store in a thousand strip malls across the US.

Sheppard blinked at the last alien. "Well.. This city has everything.. Even a GAP."

The human stopped and eyed the colonel a moment with a smirk, then stood straight and fired off a salute. His uniform, while not American standard, did bear American airforce badges signifying his rank as a Serviceman.

"Sir!"

John returned the salute in his pseudo cowboy fashion. "Stand down, Airman. It's your base, not mine."

The soldier relaxed and nodded to the rest of the Group. "Doctors Weir, McKay and Beckett. Miss Emmagan. Specialist..." he took a second to remember the name, "Ronan Dex. I am Airman, First Class, Dyson Weiss, and Colonel Kincaid's personal assistant. Welcome to Vanneheim Base."

Elizabeth grinned. "Thank you for having us, Airman." she said and took another look around. "It's really rather amazing."

"Yes, Ma'am. We've been her almost 5 months now and it never seems to get any less amazing. Now before we head to the briefing room we need to run a quick physical on each of you."

"Yes - yes, of course." Rodney said, tiredly. He really hated this protocol though he understood it's importance. "Look, just show us to the infirmary so we can get the needles and probing fingers out of the way as quickly as possible."

The Vanir in the jeans stepped foreward, pulling a device similar to one of the Ancients scanners but with a more Asgard shape to it off his belt. "No need, Doctor McKay. This will take only a moment of your time." The second Vanir pulled a similar device from his own belt and the pair began walking around each Atlantian.

Becket seemed fascinated by the devices. "Those can do a complete physical?" he asked. "The ones we found on Atlantis can do specific diagnostics but nothing so analytical.."

The denimed Vanir smiled that strangely human smile. "Yes, Doctor Becket. Our scanners may be not as advanced as Atlantis's but we have an active cloud system working. The scanner is just an extension of the Medical computer proper so long as it is within range."

Both Carson and Rodney looks intrigued by this but Elizabeth knew she had to reign this in fast or they would get nowhere. "Guys, come on.. We can chit chat later about Clouds. We have a meeting to attend to..."

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

"If everyone will direct their attention to the, uhm, holographic table?" Rodney grimaced and looked at his friends from Atlantis sitting together along one edge of the table, with the SGC and Vanniheim contingents each claiming their own sides "Why don't we have one of these?"

"Because you broke it when you were trying to hook up the X-Box to it?" John offered.

"Well come on? Who would have thought that a city full of ancient technology would only have one holographic conference table? Besides, it was your X-box.."

The remaining two groups watched the Atlantis pair with a mixture of confusion (mostly from those of less then human descent) and amusement (those of fairly human descent). Ever since the Atlantis contingent to the conference had arrived

The table's surface lit a faint glowing blue, like fire, and above it a three dimensional image of a cluster of of whirls and blobs of sparkling dots floated into existence.

"People, welcome to the local neighbourhood... The Local Group, if you will. A cluster over thirty galaxies of which the two most massive members are the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy." Rodney explained. He pulled out a telescoping rod and leaned over the table, waving it through the hologram. "As you can see, the cluster rotates slowly around a gravitational centre located somewhere between us andromeda."

Daniel squinted at the Hologram. "I only see The milky way and Andromeda...Oh wait.. There's a third one... I think.. Why is it so blurry? Hey, it's not a pinwheel!"

Rodney sighed and moved the tip of the wand into a small blur. "That's because you watch too much science fiction, Jackson. Not all galaxies are pinwheels, uhm, spirals. Many are just…"

"Blobs?" John offered.

"Well, yes... blobs." the Canadian muttered. "Anyways, The Milky Way and Andromeda are the two largest galaxies, and that third small one far off to the side is the Triangulum Galaxy, also known as Messier 33, these are the spiral galaxies we are all pretty much familiar with. Spirals tend to be larger then most galaxies, even the smallest of spirals.. But the… blobs.." he looked pained with that description. "They are usually elliptical galaxies and irregular galaxies or... as with the case of Pegasus..." he touched a button on the table and the cluster rotated and suddenly zoomed in, pushing farther out images out of the range of the hologram as the picture resolved on an edge of Andromeda...

Kincaid frowned at the picture. "Doctor McKay... Pegasus is Andromeda?"

Rolling his eyes, Rodney tweaked the picture until a smaller blob appeared a small distance away from Andromeda's edge. "No, Colonel. This is Pegasus. Or, to be precise, the Pegasus Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy. Also known as Andromeda VI... Pegasus is a satellite galaxy of Andromeda, orbiting it on the side between the Milky Way and Andromeda. It is roughly 2.55 million lightyears away from us."

"You mean we've been on the doorstep of the Andromeda galaxy?" Elizabeth asked, amazed.

"Yes, and it's always confused us." Carter said, speaking up for the first time. "Pegasus is, by Milky Way standards, mineral poor. You can tell as much by Spectral Analysis. If the Ancients had intergalactic hyperdrive capabilities at least equal to modern Asgard they could have reached Andromeda, a much resource richer galaxy which would be much more beneficial to such a technically advanced society, in just three extra days."

McKay nodded in agreement. "Yes, that's always bothered me too.. I never found any reason in the ancients database on Atlantis... and from what I have gleamed from our gracious hosts here at Venneheim there are no clues in their database either."

"Anyways now we know where we, meaning both the Milky way and Pegasus Stargate networks, are in galactic scheme of things. Now ever since Daniel's team at Antarctica found this sapphire room both the SGC and Atlantis have been running calculations based on the trajectory data shown in that hologram We figured that if we ran different simulations on the same coordinates from two separated inter galactic locations we could come up with a better idea of each of the cities locations. We have accounted for over half of them so far to within 98 percent certainty and one of them stands out as possibly our best option."

Tapping a few controls the hologram swivelled, almost sickenly, and zoomed back towards the Milky way Galaxy. Then thought it, firing past at impossible velocity, and out the opposite edge , Opposite of Andromeda and Pegasus to settle on a space closer to the Milky way then Pegasus was to Andromeda.

"Welcome to the Draco Dwarf Speroidal Galaxy." McKay said, proudly.

Kincaid studied the picture for a moment, as did everyone else. Daniel had to squint.

Rolling his eyes, McKay taps the controls and zoomed even deeper on the dark and fuzzy region of space until it clarified. Barely. "As you can see..."

"No.. No I don't think we can." Daniel murmured, earning a glared from the scientist.

"He's right." John Admitted. "Doctor Jackson is, I mean. Thats not even a blob. It's more like, I dunno..."

"A spritz?" Kincaid offered? That earned a soft chuckled from everyone, even the aliens.

Rodney sighed and hung his head. "To be surrounded by geniuses." he muttered. "Fine. It's a spritz. But a very interesting spritz. Draco is the closest non-spiral galaxy to the Milky Way at a rough distance of 280,000 lightyears. Yet it is one of the faintest galaxies ever discovered." A few more taps on the screen and the pictures were replaced with bar graphs and computational analysis. "That's because Drago is mainly comprised of an old population of stars and insignificant amounts of interstellar matter…Basically meaning it is free of stellar dust and debris."

Jack, who had been silent through most of the briefing so far raises a brow as he stared at some of the floating charts. "Wait a sec.. if this Draino Spritz galaxy..."

"That's Draco..."

"Yeah - yeah, whatever. if this Draco galaxy is made up of old stars, and by old I am assuming you mean red giants and such, why would the Ancients want to settle there?" he asked. "I mean.. Old stars mean that the free floating heavier elements have been consumed to the stars, right? That would make it an even resource poorer galaxy then Pegasus."

A hush fell over the room as every single person turned and stared at the General. "What?" he cried.. "I was just sayin..."

"No no no!" Rodney said, eyes still bulging incredulously. "You're.. You're right! Thats a very good question."

O'Neill looked pleased with himself, crossing his arms and sitting back.

Carter sat straighter. "Yes. The general brings up a point that Rodney, myself and a few of the scientists here looked into it and the only thing we could discover was this." She motioned to Rodney to change the display, though the Canadian was still staring at Jack like he had grown a third head. Since only a second head wouldn't have been so strange to him then O'Neill asking educated questions about astronomy.

"Rodney?" She coughed.

"Oh yeah... right. Moving on then..." He quickly said, looking at the controls. The picture changed, this one covered and coloured falsely by the computers to show some sort of... pattern... overlay and permeating the Draco galaxy. "Dark Matter." he supplied before anyone could ask. "Draco is perhaps the most heavily dark matter dominated galaxy we have ever discovered. Scientists have been studying Draco for a decade now for that exact reason."

Kincaid looked confused. "I know what Dark matter is, lad... Sorta, anyways." he admitted. "I just dinnae know how it could be useful to anyone. I mean, if it had useful properties wouldn't we have discovered species that used it for something, or reference of it from the Ancients?"

Bestla spoke up, her calming voice radiating pleasantly through the room. "That is because there has never been any overt use for Dark matter, since we cannot interact with it in most senses of the word." She told the giant. "Most study bore little fruit and was abandoned by all but a very few centuries if not millennia before the Ancients left this galaxy."

"Why not?"

"Because the very nature of Dark matter was, in fact, very UN-useful to us in any sense, and useful for the galaxy itself as a stellar construct." she told him. "Dark Matter exists throughout the known universe. Think of it like Air pressure. In some places it moves in thicker concentrations, in patterns. The Milky Way and most spira galaxies are embedded in, for lack of a better world, an infinitesimal nearly two dimensional plane of dark matter which rotates, thus the galaxy rotates evenly. This is why the stars of the galaxy don't just drag along like flotsam going down a water drain. The thickness of the Plane is so minute it does little to effect things on macro scales in the most obvious ways. But the concentration of Dark matter in Drago, more like the thickness of water or sludge compared to air and spread around in three dimensions rather then a near two dimensional plane would have many far reaching impacts on anyone living there."

Sheppard frowned now. "What kind of.. impacts?" he asked.

"Well for one, it would greatly hinder the use of Hyperspatial drives." Rodney supplied. "Unless you could find corridors or routes around the Dark matter concentrations, it would be like trying to drive into and through a heavy snow bank. Intergalactic Hyperdrive would let us arrive at the edge of Draco in 3 days or so, but once inside the Dark Matter radii it would slow the drive down."

"Well, how slow?"

"Well if you could find a space with a low enough dark matter density to even form a window into hyperspace, the distortions of the dark matter on hyper and subspace would reduce speeds to a 10th the speed that we enjoy with intergalactic hyperspace. I mean it would be better then the speed of light but still... tedious... to what we enjoy now."

"What about the Stargate?"

Carter and Rodney exchanged looks. "We're.. not quite sure." Sam admitted. "I mean, we only figured out the effects of dense dark matter with help from the few records we have and the Vanir and Asgard calculations. But there are no concentrations of Dark Matter here or in Pegasus anywhere near the density of Drago, and the few that come even a little close are far from in the direct path of any Stargate route. So since we don't have a clue...."

"...We'll have to dial up Draco and find out." Jack said. He looked to Kincaid and nodded. "I think it's time your people get a MALP prepped."


End file.
